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PROJECTION 

CONNECTION 

Starts on page 41 

Fall Show Product Preview, page 19 

Vol. 10.9 

OCTOBER 

2009 

PLASA 2009: Partly Cloudy, but Clearing 

Last year, during PLASA 2008, President Bush rocked the world with the announcement that the U.S. 

government would take over Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and AIG. While the Brits wondered how in a free 

market economy the government could take such measures, the rest of us wondered how it might affect 

the industry. The concerns, it turned out, were well founded. This year, when the industry converged on Earls 

Court Convention Center in London, the dark clouds that had balled up and rained on the economy were 

clearing out and sunshine was starting to break through. So how did the forecast for the economy shape this 

year’s show? Check out the PLASA 2009 Show Report on page 28 and find out. 

Robe Lighting Expands Vertically, Horizontally 

Along with an expansion of its logistics center, 

Robe has acquired a key supplier, Dioflex. 

ROZNOV POD 

R A D H O S T E M , 

Czech Republic — 

Robe acquired PCB 

production company 

Dioflex, its longterm 

electronic 

parts supplier, and 

is expanding with a 

$5 million logistics center that nearly doubles its warehouse 

space to about 43,000 square feet. An expansion 

of the company’s factory includes a new 10,000-squarefoot 

plastics molding area. 

The acquisition of Dioflex includes a 21,000-squarefoot 

facility with equipment and 30 employees. By bringing 

its PCB manufacturing in-house, Robe is anticipating 

faster turnarounds for Robe and Anolis product orders. 

With all the metalwork and plastic molding now completed 

on the premises, adding in-house PCB production 

to the manufacturing chain was a “completely logical 

move,” according to Dioflex’s new CEO, David Orsag, who 

is also the production director of Robe lighting. 

Parnelli Voting Open, 

Dennis DeYoung to 

Host Gala 

LAS VEGAS — Voting 

for the 2009 

Parnelli Awards 

has begun! Go 

to www.parnelli 

awards.com/vote 

and let your voice 

be heard. By voting, you will have a 

say in who will be receiving more than 

20 awards for live event excellence. 

Along with returning awards categories 

such as Lighting Company of 

the Year, Hometown Hero Lighting 

Company of the Year and Lighting 

Designer of the Year, there are four 

new Indispensable Technology “IT” 

award categories honoring product 

innovations. 

The Parnelli Board of Directors has 

also announced that Dennis DeYoung 

will be hosting the Parnelli Awards, set 

for Nov. 20 at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando. 

(To purchase tickets, go to www. 

parnelliawards.com/reservations.) 

DeYoung wrote and performed 

“Lady,” 

Dennis DeYoung 

“Babe,” 

continued on page 9 

Harry Donovan, 1943-2009 

SEATTLE — Harry Donovan, 66, a 

pioneer in theatrical and entertainment 

rigging and author of Entertainment 

Rigging: A Practical Guide for 

Riggers, Designers and Managers, died 

after being admitted to the hospital 

Sept. 23. Donovan had battled cancer 

for months with chemotherapy, radiation, 

and surgery. 

“Harry was a friend of mine, a 

mentor and a sailing buddy,” said Pete 

Zink with IATSE Local 15 in Seattle. “I 

looked up to him in all things rigging 

and safety. He will be missed.” 

“Harry was among the top riggers 

in the world, if not the top rigger,” 

said Richard continued on page 8 

33 

48 

52 

PLSN’s 2009 

Hometown Heroes 

They handle the lighting for 

fairs, festivals, street parties and 

sometimes even weddings, putting 

as much heart, sweat and creative 

energy into the local event held 

on the high school playground as 

that one-off Dave Matthews show 

or corporate launch. They are the 

local heroes who, day-in and dayout, 

do what needs to be done, 

with little recognition. The Parnelli 

Board of Directors and those 

at PLSN once again recognize the 

achievements of the six regional 

finalists for the 2009 Hometown 

Hero Award. The profiles begin on 

page 24. 

Big Wheels Keep on Turning 

Despite the challenging times, 

leaders of the touring industry’s 

trucking firms are relieved to report 

summer results that were, for 

the most part, “business as usual.” 

Feeding the Machines 

How to keep your shows fresh by 

breaking free from old habits and 

routines. 

LD-At-Large 

Guest LD etiquette and other tips 

on sharing creative control. 

PRO LIGHTING SPACE 

www.ProLightingSpace.com/join

Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info


WHAT’S HOT 

WHAT’S HOT 

PROJECTION, LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS 

Showtime 

The CMA Music Festival in Nashville featured country and rock 

crossover artists like Kid Rock, lit here by LD Mike Swinford and 

Premier Global Productions. 

Jake Berry 

PLSN’s 2009 Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award winner made 

a name for himself by applying creative problem-solving skills to 

situations that would leave others paralyzed with fear. 

www.plsn.com OCTOBER 2009 

20 

38 

CONTENTS 

Features 

19 Fall Show Product Preview 

A preview of some of the new products 

you can expect to see in November at 

the LDI show in Orlando. 

22 Production Profile: Kenny Chesney 

Ed Wannebo, a.k.a. “Daddy,” has been 

production manager for Kenny Chesney 

since 2002. Here he talks about a laidback 

life on the road with his traveling 

“family.” 

24 Hometown Heroes 2009 

We profile the six lighting companies 

that are regional finalists for the Parnelli 

Hometown Hero award. The winner will 

be announced Nov. 20 in Orlando. 

28 Show Report: PLASA 09 

If it was hard to spot any monumental 

“Next Big Thing” at PLASA this year, 

it was because the Last Big Things — 

LEDs, media servers and networking — 

are still unfolding before our very eyes. 

33 Feature: Transportation 

Touring industry transportation 

may look like regular trucking, but 

appearances can be deceptive. “It’s like 

choreographing ballet,” says Roadshow 

Services’ David Kiely. 

35 Buyers Guide 

“Dimmer Beach” may sound like a 

paradise, and while that’s not quite 

the reality, today’s portable dimmers 

are making the lives of dimmer techs 

everywhere easier. 

Columns 

4 Editor’s Note 

We can use today’s communications 

technology to keep everyone informed 

in near-real time, and that can be a 

good thing. 

44 Video World 

Digital cinema is opening up a new era 

of 3D imagery. Here’s a brief history 

of how 3D technology emerged, and 

where it’s headed. 

48 Feeding the Machines 

Making a conscious effort every once in 

a while to program some new looks and 

palettes can expand your repertoire of 

visual expression. 

52 LD-at-Large 

The do’s and don’ts of sharing creative 

control as a guest LD include the need 

to appreciate the skills of your LD and 

programmer counterparts working on 

TV events and festivals. 

Departments 

5 News 

6 Calendar 

6 Letters to the Editor 

9 In Brief 

14 International News 

18 On the Move 

41 Projection Connection 

Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com


TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION 

EDITOR’S NOTE 

PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS 

By Richard 

Now is Not Soon Enough 

The Publication of Record for the Lighting, 

Staging and Projection Industries 

Publisher 

Terry Lowe 

tlowe@plsn.com 

Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info 

My wife bought me the book, 

John Adams by David Mc- 

Cullough shortly after it 

came out in 2001. It’s a 700+ page 

book about the second president of 

the United States. (You thought it was 

about the guy who works at Vari-Lite 

and who used to work for High End 

Systems, didn’t you?) Although the 

book very much intrigued me, it sat on 

the shelf for almost eight years before 

I finally got the time to read it. 

When I finally did read it, I was 

struck by how long it took for news 

to travel back then. When the Treaty 

of Mortefontaine ending the Franco- 

American War was signed in Paris in 

September of 1800, it wasn’t until 

January 1801 that word of the agreement 

reached the U.S. Today, when Jon 

Gosselin cheats on Kate, you know it 

before your newspaper lands in your 

bushes the next morning. Is the world 

We can use (technology) to spread the 

truth or to spread lies, for good or for evil 

— for lighting or for audio. 

a better place because of it or in spite 

of it? 

It can be. 

We have the potential to use our 

modern day tech tools for good or for 

ill. We can use them to disseminate 

valuable information or spread idle 

gossip. We can use them to spread the 

truth or to spread lies, for good or for 

evil — for lighting or for audio. Tools 

like Twitter, Facebook, ProLighting- 

Space, and TheatreFace can be used 

to kill time or they can be used to help 

build your career. As the creator of Pro- 

LightingSpace and TheatreFace, we’re 

working on trying to make it more of 

the latter and less of the former. 

A few days ago we received an email 

from a lighting designer who was coming 

to town with a popular band. He invited 

us to come out and see the show. 

But we had a little something more in 

mind than just watching it. 

After arranging it with the LD, Morgan 

Loven and I showed up at load-in 

armed with cameras, a laptop, an air 

card, and a card reader. Our gracious 

host, Kevin Christopher, the LD for 

Journey, introduced us to the production 

manager, Rob Kern, and the production 

assistant, Sarah Schoup. They 

were kind enough to grant us total access 

so we began shooting everything 

we saw and immediately downloaded 

it to the laptop, went online, and posted 

it on ProLightingSpace.com. By the 

time the band took their final bow 

at 11 p.m., we had posted 14 blog 

entries with a total of 46 pictures 

up on the site. We were literally 

shooting, popping the memory 

card out of the camera, popping it 

in the card reader, moving the pictures 

to the computer, writing the 

blog and uploading the pictures 

throughout the day and night. 

Next month, you’ll be able to read 

a more in depth article about the 

show, the gear, the crew and the 

entire production in these pages. 

Why did we do this? For the 

free meal pass in catering of 

course. Isn’t that why everyone is 

in this industry? It’s not? Oh, well, 

then it must be for another reason. 

Actually, the idea is to get as 

close to the industry as possible. 

As Madge the manicurist says, 

“we’re soaking in it.” Or at least 

we’re trying to. But by soaking in 

it we hope to get it all over us and 

then pass it on to you. It’s our way 

of going beyond ink and paper 

and getting into the head of the 

industry. And in this day and age 

— the age of “Now is Not Soon 

Enough” — we want to deliver 

timely information that you can 

use to better your career. 

This was our first attempt at 

it. As John Lennon once said, “I 

hope we passed the audition.” You 

can check out the results at www. 

prolightingspace.com/profiles/ 

blog/list. Not a member yet? Go to 

www.prolightingspace.com/join. 

Richard Cadena can be reached at 

rcadena@plsn.com. 

Editor 

Richard Cadena 

rcadena@plsn.com 

Managing Editor 

Frank Hammel 

fhammel@plsn.com 

Editorial Assistant 

Victoria Laabs 

vll@plsn.com 

Senior Staff Writer 

Kevin M. Mitchell 

Contributing Writers 

Paul Berliner, Vickie Claiborne, Dan Daley, 

David John Farinella, Rob Ludwig, 

Bryan Reesman, Brad Schiller, 

Nook Schoenfeld 

Photographer 

Steve Jennings 

Art Director 

Garret Petrov 

gpetrov@plsn.com 

Web Master 

Josh Harris 

jharris@plsn.com 

National 

Advertising Director 

Gregory Gallardo 

gregg@plsn.com 

Account Manager 

James Leasing 

jleasing@plsn.com 

Advertising Manager 

Matt Huber 

mh@plsn.com 

Production Manager 

Linda Evans 

levans@plsn.com 

General Manager 

William Hamilton Vanyo 

wvanyo@plsn.com 

Business and 

Advertising Office 

6000 South Eastern Ave. 

Suite 14J 

Las Vegas, NV 89119 

Ph: 702.932.5585 

Fax: 702.554.5340 

Editorial Office 

10305 Salida Dr. 

Austin, TX 78749 

Ph: 512.280.0384 

Fax: 512.292.0183 

Circulation 

Stark Services 

P.O. Box 16147 

North Hollywood, CA 91615 

Projection, Lights & Staging News (ISSN: 

1537-0046) Volume 10, Number 9 Published monthly 

by Timeless Communications Corp. 6000 South 

Eastern Ave., Suite 14J, Las Vegas, NV 89119. It is 

distributed free to qualified individuals in the 

lighting and staging industries in the United 

States and Canada. Periodical Postage paid 

at Las Vegas, NV, office and additional offices. 

Postmaster please send address changes to: 

Projection, Lights & Staging News, P.O. Box 

16147 North Hollywood, CA 91615. Mailed in 

Canada under Publications Mail Agreement 

Number 40033037, 1415 Janette Ave., Windsor, 

ON N8X 1Z1. Overseas subscriptions are available 

and can be obtained by calling 702.932.5585. 

Editorial submissions are encouraged, but must 

include a self-addressed stamped envelope to be 

returned. Projection, Lights & Staging News is a 

Registered Trademark. All Rights Reserved. 

Duplication, transmission by any method of 

this publication is strictly prohibited without 

permission of Projection, Lights & Staging News. 

ESTA 

ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES &

ESTA and PLASA 

Announce Their 

Intention to Merge 

NEW YORK — ESTA and PLASA have signed 

a letter of intent to merge. The organizations said 

that by uniting as one body the merged entity 

will be able to offer a stronger voice for members, 

enhance existing initiatives and expand 

their range of services. 

The proposed merger has the backing of 

both the ESTA board of directors and the PLASA 

executive committee, who voted on the proposal 

this summer and who will formally recommend 

the move to their respective memberships, subject 

to due diligence being completed successfully 

during the spring/summer of 2010. 

If both memberships vote to go ahead, the 

first stage of the merger will be completed by 

December 2010, effectively creating an industrywide 

membership network of over 1,100 dealers, 

manufacturers, installers, service providers and 

consultants operating under the PLASA name. 

This will also include members of PERA—the 

Production Equipment Rental Association— 

whose members work across the film, video and 

broadcast industries and which recently merged 

with ESTA. 

The organizations said the planned merger 

will not lead to any immediate changes, and the 

direct priority for ESTA and PLASA will be to continue 

to serve the joint membership in the strongest, 

most relevant way possible. 

To reinforce this aim, the proposal outlining 

the merger recommends that leadership groups 

be established initially in North America and 

Europe, elected by their respective members to 

represent their interests and to shape the organization 

to meet their specific needs. 

Each of these elected leadership groups will 

provide representatives who will sit on an executive 

committee charged with overall responsibility 

for governance, strategic planning and 

financial direction. Joining these representatives 

on the executive committee will be members-atlarge 

elected from the membership worldwide. 

Work on key initiatives such as ESTA’s Technical 

Standards Program is expected to continue 

after the projected merger. ESTA’s commitment 

to furthering industry skills will also remain a key 

priority, and while the methods of implementation 

differ, the goals of increasing the level of 

knowledge and skills in the industry and creating 

a safer working environment are jointly shared 

and will be fully implemented. 

Other initiatives, such as market research, 

will be strengthened with current research exercises 

expanded and opportunities for additional 

research explored. 

ESTA president Bill Groener and PLASA chairman 

Rob Lingfield view the proposed merger as 

a significant and essential move for members of 

both organizations, who, they believe, will benefit 

from having a much strengthened representative 

body safeguarding their interests and 

developing their commercial advantages. 

In a joint statement, PLASA CEO Matthew 

Griffiths and ESTA executive director Lori Rubinstein 

said, “This is essentially about doing what 

is best for our members. The proposed merger 

will radically enhance what we can achieve on 

behalf of the companies and individuals we represent, 

making us a more effective and informed 

advocate for the industry. The industry needs an 

organization that is responsive to its members’ 

needs and one where they feel fully connected 

and involved. We share common goals and objectives 

and a united approach to the issues and 

challenges of our market will provide major longterm 

benefits and greatly broaden the role of the 

organization.” 


LOUISVILLE, KY — ZFX Flying Effects 

and Las Vegas-based Stage Technologies 

have announced a strategic alliance to offer 

automated solutions for productions that 

require complex flying sequences. 

ZFX will add Stage Technologies’ hoists 

and control systems to its roster of complete 

flying services. ZFX also named Joe 

Champelli, who has considerable experience 

in automation and machinery design, 

as its general manager. 

“Automation provides greater precision 

and versatility to the artistic flying effects for 

which ZFX is already known,” said Champelli. 

“The blend of our artistic experience and 

Stage Tech’s reputation and reliability in 

motion controlled flying equipment makes 

an ideal union.” 

The strategic alliance is expected to give 

ZFX the ability to expand from single-point 

and travel-compensated flying to automated 

flying effects that include integrated 

pendulum and multi-point 3-dimensional 

flying with higher speeds, repeatability and 

consistency. 

“We are absolutely delighted to be 

able to work with the team at ZFX, whose 

experience and reputation we have known 

for many years,” said Nikki Scott, commercial 

director of Stage Technologies. “Our 

NEWS 

ZFX and Stage Technologies Announce Strategic Alliance 

companies share similar values, and both 

believe in supplying systems and service 

which exceed our customers’ expectations. 

The range of equipment and expertise now 

available from ZFX as a result of this alliance 

with Stage Technologies provides end-users 

a complete range of flying effects.” 

ZFX will continue to offer the company’s 

tried-and-true, custom harnesses, 

manual equipment, track, truss and other 

system components as well as standard 

aerial hoists. Automation now rounds out 

the company’s capabilities, making ZFX a 

one-stop shop for live flying effects. 

2009 OCTOBER PLSN 5

NEWS 

So I’m watching 

this guy on TV, and 

he’s talking about 

THE EDITOR 

important celebrity 

stuff, like, why so and 

so is not dating so 

and so, because so 

and so has a drug problem, but, so and so is going 

to rehab at some resort in California, and how 

tough it will be for so and so because a cheeseburger 

at that place cost $28, plus, there’s a stupid 

looking chandelier with fake bird feathers, hanging 

in the lobby bar. Anyway, as the TV guy was 

talking, hey, I was thinking about important stuff 

too…like have you noticed how gigantic and 

white the TV guy’s teeth are? Anyway, he’s got 

all this video stuff going on behind him and I’m 

Geezer Alert: An Old LD’s Vision of the Future 

having trouble concentrating because there are 

all these globs floating behind his head. They’re 

all going like 90 miles an hour, and I’m trying to 

figure out the globs, and about the time I feel my 

eyeballs start oozing something, I think I figure 

out what the globs are. (Don’t worry, turns out 

my eyes weren’t bleeding or anything, it was just 

some kinda of crud.) Anyway…I decide those 

video globs behind the news guy look kind of 

like giant boogers and I can’t figure out how giant 

boogers would make his teeth look so gigantic 

unless they’re high def boogers. So, I called the 

station ‘cause I know some stagehand guy and 

he let me talk to the video guy. I don’t usually understand 

when video guys talk because they talk 

about pixels and things, and their mouth is usually 

full of Oreos or something. But this video kid 

asked me what I thought of the video boogers 

and did I think they should be green or orange? 

So, I laughed at him and I asked him when 

was the last time he saw an orange booger? So, 

he made them all orange because he wanted 

to be “edgy.” Anyway, I hang up the phone and 

keep watching the giant, orange boogers, and 

this time the TV guy was talking about why skinny 

people go to the bathroom about 14 times a 

day and don’t eat potato chips or sweat much. 

And I’m starting to get dizzy and confused, so I 


change the station and I watch this other show 

about people eating spiders so they can lose 

weight. 

Later, I go to a concert because I know some 

guys backstage. And this is a really famous band, 

I think, because I can’t really see them because 

my eyes still hurt a little bit from before and 

there’s still some crud. The video walls behind the 

band have really bright globs on them and the 

famous guys onstage look all fuzzy and the globs 

are pulsating so much that my beer spills on the 

guy next to me who didn’t even notice ‘cause it 

was like he was in a trance or something. I get 

confused again because I know I’m supposed 

to think this is really creative and all but I can’t 

see the freakin’ guys on stage! (I know, I know…I 

can always watch the I-Mag screens, I guess, but 

if l hadn’t got in for free and all, I would’ve paid 

about $326 for a ticket. If I was paying that much, 

I would want to see the famous guys in real life, 

not on some giant screen with video boogers all 

over it.) 

Sometimes, I wish I had a big ole clanky 

handle that I could carry around with me and 

just slam down and fade things down a bit. (If it 

was too clanky it would probably just piss off the 

audio guy, but that’s not so bad, is it?) I’m basically 

old and dumb and not edgy and I like to 

see people on stage and I don’t really care that 

they have the largest video screens known to 

mankind making humongous, sweaty, convulsing 

globs behind them that some genius, 20 year 

old kid made, so everybody could see how creative 

he was. 

It’s like that Super Bowl concert a few years 

ago with McCartney, and his band that wasn’t 

the Beatles, where everybody was all dark, but 

the video going 90 miles per hour on the stage 

looked fantastic, didn’t it? I bet if George Harrison 

hadn’t been cremated and spread all over 

India, he would’ve rolled over in his grave. 

Anyway, I like you’re magazine and I think I’ll 

just quit being an LD and start eating spiders. 

P.S. — My, my…how things have changed… 

Back in the day when I was walking to high school 

in the snow and dreaming about Debra Winger, 

my idea of a big lighting rig was 36 dented PAR 

cans, no spares, and some burnt out Roscolene 

gel. Usually I just gaffed tape the gel in because 

the gel frames never fit. I later figured out, that 

if I bent the frames over my knee and put a nice 

crease down the middle, I could cram them in. 

Then, if I used the proper tools, I could usually uncram 

them after the show. Unless it was raining. 

—Wayne H. Lambert, Showcrafters Inc., Dallas, 

Texas 

CALENDAR 

PLSN University 

Oct. 5-7, 2009 

New York, N.Y. 

www.plsn.com/university 

AES Convention 

Oct. 9-12, 2009 

The Javits Center 

New York, N.Y. 

www.aes.org 

Litec CM Hoist Training 

Oct. 12-13, Nov. 16-17 

Mogliano Veneto, Italy 

www.litectruss.com 

Pro Light + Sound Shanghai 

Oct. 13-16, 2009 

SNIEC, Shanghai, China 

www.messefrankfurt.com 

Creative Stage Lighting Open House 

Oct. 13, 15, 19; Dec. 7, 2009 

Various locations 

www.creativestagelighting.com 

ETC Ion Training 

Oct. 14-15, 2009 (Boston) 

Oct. 22-23, 2009 (Baltimore) 

www.etcconnect.com 

SAE Alumni Convention 

Oct. 15-16, 2009 

Berlin, Germany 

www.sae-alumni.org 

SIEL-SATIS 

Oct. 20-22, 2009 

Paris Expo-Porte de Versailles 

Paris, France 

www.siel-satis.com 

ESTA Rigging/Electrical Seminars 

Nov. 16-22, 2009 

Orlando, Fla. 

www.estafoundation.org 

LDI 

Nov. 20-22, 2009 

Orange County Convention Center 

Orlando, Fla. 

www.ldishow.com 



6 

PLSN OCTOBER 2009


NEWS 

Harry Donovan, 1943-2009 

Harry Donovan 

continued from cover 

Cadena, editor of PLSN. “He was fascinating 

to talk with, and he knew his stuff 

backwards and forwards. The industry has 

lost a true icon.” 

Donovan’s work in this field began during 

the early years of arena rigging when 

he pioneered the development of modern 

techniques. He spent 22 years on the road 

perfecting his craft, rigging more than 

4,000 rock ‘n roll shows and 200,000 

points without a single failure. 

Donovan worked on the biggest 

tours with the most difficult and 

technical rigging. He toured with 

Paula Abdul, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, 

David Bowie, Jimmy Buffett, 

Johnny Cash, the Eagles, Emerson, 

Lake and Palmer, Larry Graham in 

Grand Central Station, George Harrison, 

Don Henley, Rick James, Elton 

John, Tom Jones, Judas Priest, KISS, 

Bella Lewitsky Dance Company, 

Barry Manilow, Boz Scaggs, REO 

Speedwagon, Bruce Springsteen, 

Rod Stewart, Gino Vanelli, The Who 

and Robert Wilson. 

Donovan rigged almost every 

kind of venue, including theatres of 

all types, arenas, coliseums, auditoriums, 

convention centers, civic centers, hotels, 

high schools, colleges and universities, 

soundstages, amphitheatres, airplane 

hangars and outdoor venues, warehouses, 

gymnasiums, theme parks, hotels, armories, 

train stations, art galleries, museums, 

swimming pools and stadiums. 

Donovan also worked in many capacities 

in the entertainment industry — as a 

rigger, stagehand, master electrician, lighting 

designer, stage manager, production 

manager, design engineer for equipment 

manufacturers, producer, consultant, contractor, 

instructor and company owner. He 

worked on many types of shows: Broadway, 

musicals, opera, circus, ice shows, Rock ‘n 

Roll, industrial events, movies, corporate 

events, conventions, dance and ballet, educational, 

athletic events, religious events, 

festivals, Country-Western shows and more. 

And he worked with many types of groups, 

including AA, Amway, Antioch College (his 

alma mater), CCI, Century Strand Lighting, 

the Goodwill games, Bill Graham presents, 

Billy Graham, IATSE Local 15 (Seattle), IATSE 

Local 16 (San Francisco), Kingdome, Kleigl 

Brothers, McCarter Theatre, San Francisco 

Opera, Microsoft, Seattle Opera, Stage Rigging 

Inc., TFA, TPN, Tally Management and 

Winterland. 

Since 1988, Donovan was president 

of Donavon Rigging Inc. His company did 

rigging for shows and events, contracting 

of rigging equipment and services, design 

and consulting, expert witness work, fall 

protection design/build, training and show 

production. 

Donovan’s other company, Rigging 

Seminars, provided training for entertainment 

industry rigging. Donovan was 

a world leader in arena rigging instruction, 

combining vast practical experience 

with his engineering background to create 

highly successful seminars for riggers, 

technical directors, architects, designers, 

production personnel, stagehands, students 

and venue managers. Thousands of 

people learned rigging at these seminars. 

Donovan was a longtime member of 

the IATSE, the USITT and ESTA. He was on 

the ESTA rigging certification committee, 

which established requirements for rigging 

certification. 

Donovan lived in Seattle with his 

wife, Patty and their boat coast home, 

whose rigging he was constantly changing. 

During the summers you could find 

them anywhere from Puget Sound to the 

Queen Charlotte Islands with Patty and 

friends, looking for good winds. Winters 

were spent tweaking the sails and rigging 

for the next summer. 

Along with his wife, Patty, Donovan is 

survived by his mother, Constance Donovan, 

two brothers, Tom Donovan and Robert 

Donovan, and two sisters, Gail Donovan 

Kesich and Kaja Donovan. 



8 


Parnelli Voting Open, Dennis DeYoung to Host Gala 

continued from cover 

“Come Sail Away” and many other hits for 

Styx, and he also played a key role in the 

band’s themed albums and theatrical and visually 

groundbreaking shows. 

“He was deeply involved in bringing Styx’s 

concept albums to life in a theatrical setting,” 

said Kevin Mitchell, Parnelli producer/writer. 

“Throughout his career he’s put on intricate 

shows, including musical theater projects. Not 

included in the Wikipedia version of his life, he 

possesses a hilarious offbeat sense of humor. 

He will make this our best Parnellis yet.” 

DeYoung’s contributions to Styx helped 

propel the band to international stardom, 

breaking new artistic ground as well as selling 

millions of records. In 1983 the group 

mounted an ambitious stage presentation 

based on their rock opera Kilroy that included 

an 11-minute film, which opened the show. 

It served as a glimpse into the future of live 

event entertainment. 

DeYoung’s solo career has included more 

hit songs and memorable concerts, and in 1993 

he joined a touring revival of the stage musical 

Jesus Christ Superstar. He’s also reworked his 

music in visually creative symphonic settings. 

Last year his music for The Hunchback of Notre 

Dame premiered at the Bailiwick Repertory 

Theater in Chicago. He’s currently working on 

another musical, 101 Dalmatians, opening in 

Minneapolis this fall. 

DeYoung said he is excited to host the 

Parnelli Awards, and is expected to talk about 

his early days and how far the live event industry 

has come. “I remember going out on 

the road with just three light trees — and 

none of them worked!” he said. 

This year will feature a reunion for former 

Neil Diamond crew members, starting 

at 7 p.m. on Nov. 20, sponsored by Maryland 

Sound International and See Factor. The dinner 

and awards ceremony begins at 8 p.m. 

The awards gala will also honor Jake Berry, recipient 

of the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement 

Award; Richard Belliveau, recipient of the Parnelli 

Visionary Award and Stan Miller, recipient 

of the Parnelli Audio Innovator Award. 

The event sponsors make the Parnelli 

NEWS 

Awards possible. Gold Sponsors include: 

Barco/High End Systems, Brown United, 

Chaos Visual Productions, Dedicated Staging, 

EFM Management, Harman Group, Maryland 

Sound International, Precise Corporate Staging, 

Rock-It Cargo, Sound Image, Strictly FX, 

Sennheiser, Tour Tech East and Ultratec Special 

Effects. 

Silver sponsors include: All Access Staging 

& Production, Chauvet, Lab.gruppen, PixelRange, 

Tyler Truss and Yamaha Commercial 

Audio Systems. Production Partner Sponsors 

include: Aerial Rigging (rigging); Paradise 

Sound & Lighting (audio); PRG (projection); 

SGASI Production Services (set design); Stage 

Crew (labor); and Techni-Lux (lighting). 

IN BRIEF 

Atomic Design designed and built 

the display and touring cases for the 

multi-media arena tour, Star Wars: In 

Concert… Blue Planet Lighting was 

recently awarded the bid on 10 Lycian 

spotlights for the Intrust Bank Arena set 

to open in January, 2010 in Wichita, Kansas…Creative 

Stage Lightings’ Open 

House series, hosted with CSL dealer 

members, features new gear from Wireless 

Solutions W-DMX, Color Kinetics 

LED fixtures, Compulite consoles, JBlighting’s 

JBLED A7 and more…Kinetic 

Lighting, Inc. has updated a new version 

of its Web site, www.kineticlighting. 

com… Lite Alternative has invested in 

a Kinesys K2 automation control system 

and has used it recently on Depeche 

Mode’s Touring The Universe world tour 

and Coldplay’s Viva La Vida world tour… 

Scharff Weisberg has recently taken 

delivery of a large quantity of Coemar 

Infinity Wash XL automated fixtures 

from Inner Circle Distribution, Sunrise, 

Fla…Total Structures recently held 

their summer hoist school led by Dave 

Carmack, which included CM-ET (Columbus 

McKinnon Entertainment Technology) 

certification. 

Revised Fog Effects 

Standard Available for 

Public Review 

NEW YORK — ESTA’s Technical Standards 

Program has posted BSR E1.23 — 20XX Entertainment 

Technology — Design and Execution of 

Theatrical Fog Effects on its Web site for public review. 

It is a proposed revision of the existing ANSI 

E1.23-2006 standard related to glycol, glycerin or 

white mineral oil theatrical fog effects. 

The revisions propose to change the list of 

fog chemicals to better match those chemicals 

normally used in theatrical fog effects, and to 

better define the qualifications of those in charge 

of designing and executing the effects. 

The proposed standard will be available for 

public review at http://www.esta.org/tsp/docu 

ments/public_review_docs.php through Nov. 9. 

Separately, ESTA’s Rigging Working Group 

recently approved the initiation of two other 

projects: BSR E1.38 — 20XX, Temporary Ground- 

Supported Structures Used to Support Equipment 

in the Production of Outdoor Entertainment Events, 

Excluding Stage Roofs, and BSR E1.39 - 20xx, Entertainment 

Technology — Recommendations for 

the Use of Fall Protection on Temporary Suspended 

and Ground-Supported Structures. 



NEWS 

Indiana Church Volunteers Find Easy Learning 

Curve with New Lighting Control System 

NOBLESVILLE, IN — Grace Community 

Church expanded recently with three weekend 

worship auditoriums that together can accommodate 

up to 6,000 churchgoers, and if the 

lighting system that’s part of the multi-million 

dollar expansion looks sophisticated, it is controlled 

at times by church volunteers. 

“Nothing I have seen compares to the 

functionality and ease-of-use that the Vista series 

provides,” said Daryl Cripe, senior director 

of production at the church, which invested in 

full-size Vista T2, portable Vista S1 and playbackonly 

Vista M1 consoles. 

The Church relies on a team of more than 

100 volunteers to assist the paid production 

staff during services, “all of whom have no 

Jeannine Fortier 

A graphic interface helps keep the Vista lighting control system 

intuitive for the volunteer staff at Grace Community Church. 

previous lighting experience,” Cripe noted. “As 

such, yes, we need a lot of features and stability, 

yet we also need a console that is visual, easy 

to train on. 

“From our volunteer’s perspective, the Vista 

is visual,” Cripe noted. “They can look at a screen 

and see what they are doing. It feels very familiar 

to navigate, so they can use their existing 

computer knowledge. 

“We can configure the Vista screen to look 

like our lighting layout in the room,” Cripe added. 

“The ease of creating groups, presets, cues 

etc. is all so simple. In addition, patching fixtures 

in Vista is incredibly simple. I recently showed 

the technical director at another Church our T2 

console and when I showed him how to patch 

an automated fixture, his mouth dropped 

open.” 

The lighting system for the main auditorium, 

with an 80-foot-by-40-foot stage and with 

seating in a 270° configuration, includes over 

850 LED, moving and conventional fixtures 

controlled using six universes of DMX and over 

2,700 DMX channels. 

For that space, Cripe was looking to paint 

the whole room with light. The full-size Linuxbased 

Vista T2 console provides seamless automation 

of the auditorium’s lighting rig and 

blackout window shutters. LED fixtures provide 

color changing wall uplighting either side of 

the stage area, while a mixture of moving lights, 

PARs, ParNels and conventional fixtures provide 

theatrical performance lighting for music and 

drama during the services. 

The two smaller spaces seat 1,100 and 400, 

and have lighting rigs that are controlled by the 

Vista S1 and M1 PC based consoles. The two 

control surfaces are designed to be used with 

either a Windows PC or native Mac laptop and 

DMX channel dongle package. 

The ability for volunteers to be able to 

switch easily between consoles in all three 

auditoriums was another key factor in Cripe’s 

decision to choose the Vista. All models share 

exactly the same visual interface and controls, 

making a transition between models seamless. 

“We want them to be spending their time 

having fun programming, not trying to figure 

out some complex function on the console 

itself,” Cripe noted. “Any church that desires to 

use theatrical lighting and wants to provide volunteers 

the opportunities to create should be 

examining this series of consoles.” 



10 


San Francisco’s 

St. Ignatius Church 

Lit with LEDs 

SAN FRANCISCO — Located between Golden 

Gate Park and The Presidio, St. Ignatius Church 

has been a city landmark for close to a century. 

Lindsley Architectural Lighting enhanced the visual 

features of the cathedral with ETC’s Selador 

Series LED lighting fixtures. 

Constructed between 1910 and 1914, this 

Jesuit parish’s twin towers rise over 200 feet. Any 

aging structure faces its challenges, however. 

St. Ignatius’ 40-year-old fluorescent architectural 

lighting was beginning to fail, and the color 

temperature of the fluorescent fixtures did little 

to bring out the beauty of the architecture and 

Stations of the Cross, depicted through oil paintings 

created in Rome. 

To address the church’s lighting needs, Lindsley 

Architectural Lighting came up with a plan, 

lighting the side chapel first. 

“When we first added architectural lighting 

to the side nave arches, it revealed how beautiful 

this church can be, so we wanted to extend 

it to the upper sanctuary,” said Howard Case, 

the church’s capital projects manager. “This presented 

the opportunity to highlight the extraordinary 

architectural details of that space, with 

a core component of the solution being ETC’s 

Selador Series LED lighting fixtures.” 

“We were charged with making the lighting 

more energy efficient,” noted Alan Lindsley, 

principal of Lindsley Architectural Lighting. “Additionally, 

we wanted to reinforce the spirituality 

of the space, support different worship-service 

formats and ensure the lighting-control system 

was easy to operate.” 

As they discussed options, Lindsley suggested 

adding color to accent the details and 

coordinate the lighting color with the colors of 

the liturgical calendar. Additionally, a system 

with color-changing capability could enhance 

the musical and theatrical performances held in 

the main sanctuary. 

“We tried a Selador fixture and discovered 

it did a great job of meeting the design parameters. 

The decrease in complexity was also a benefit 

to the church to keep maintenance requirements 

minimal.” The Selador fixtures also offered 

a seven-color LED design, helping them match 

the color temperature of existing lighting. 

“The Selador units provide a wide range 

of spread lenses to meet the designer’s needs,” 

Lindsley added. “We ended up with one twofoot 

unit per column and rib with two high-power 

units at the spring points of the proscenium 

arch.” 

ETC’s Unison architectural dimming with 

LCD control panels provided centralized control 

over the lighting system, Lindsley noted, and “offers 

the ability to easily expand the system in the 

future.” 

NEWS 

Southern Comfort Concert Tour Gets UV-Sensitive Visuals 

CHICAGO — When Whitney Fitzpatrick, Allison 

Knapp and Jim Dorroh of Mowalla Production 

sought a visual surprise for Southern Comfort’s 

underCOVER tour, they turned to UV/FX. 

UV/FX brought in scenic designer Jon Craine 

to collaborate on the piece, which uses UV-sensitive 

materials for a changing visual effect. Craine 

worked with Southern Comfort and Mowalla on 

a 15-foot-by-20-foot backdrop and two sets of 

15-foot-high downstage legs. 

Southern Comfort was looking for an image 

that was inspired by modern rock poster art yet 

was still true to the brand’s identity. Craine came 

up with a Southern Comfort-inspired city infused 

with music. Craine used the recognizable Southern 

Comfort bottle as the central unifying compositional 

image. 

The imagery was applied to a central 

backdrop and modified for application 

to the downstage legs, which had to be 

designed so they could be rigged either 

horizontally or vertically depending upon 

the venue. 

The scenery was produced by UV/FX 

artist Rhett Butler using the company’s 

clear, ultraviolet-sensitive scenic paints. 

Completely transparent under regular 

colored stage lighting, the colorful paints 

emerged under the UV glow. 

The 2009 10-city underCOVER tour 

featuring Polyphonic Spree, The Hold 

Steady and Ghostland Observatory. 

UV/FX UV-sensitive paint, seen at bottom, emerged under UV light. 

Lindsley Architectural Lighting used ETC’s Selador Series LED 

fixtures for St. Ignatius Church. 


NEWS 


Indispensable Technology Awards to Debut at 2009 Parnelli Gala 

By Richard Cadena 

NEW YORK — Vibrant Design LD Christopher 

Landy provided the design for six MTV 

Unplugged shows that debuted on the Web 

at www.unplugged.mtv.com. Landy lit Adele, 

All Time Low, Silversun Pickups, Paramore, 

Katy Perry and Vampire Weekend. 

The MTV Unplugged shows were executive 

produced and directed by Matthew Mills 

of Space Station Media, which has also produced 

a variety of other Web projects, TV 

It used to be that you lived and died using 

the same technology. Fathers handed 

down blacksmithing and printing techniques 

to their sons, who in turn passed it 

down to their sons. It might be several generations 

before the technology changed. 

Today, we live and die by new technology. 

According to futurist George Gilder, 

the amount of new technological information 

is doubling every two years, and by the 

year 2014 it will be doubling every 72 hours. 

Think about the impact that has on our little 

industry. No longer does the technology 

you learned when you started in this business 

mean as much as it did a few years ago. 

In fact, as astonishing as it may sound, half 

of what you learned two years ago might be 

obsolete now. The most successful manu- 

Vote for the Indispensable Technology “IT” Award Nominees at www.parnelliawards.com/vote 

facturers are the ones who can leverage new 

technology in the marketplace and bring 

new products to the market faster and better 

than their competition. 

New technology is the only constant in 

an industry where one of the most important 

criterions for a designer is, “How can I 

create something fresh and new?” Those 

manufacturers who are clever enough to 

help answer that question with new technology 

are deserving of special recognition. 

To that end, we have created a new award 

called the Indispensable Technology Award. 

One award will go to each manufacturer in 

the categories of lighting, video, staging, 

and something they call audio. 

The inaugural nominees for the new 

awards are: 

Lighting 

Clay Paky Alpha Beam — The Alpha Beam 

is an automated ACL with a 1500-watt source 

that produces a parallel beam of light. LD Jeff 

Rials used them on the European leg of the 

Limp Bizkit tour. 

Coemar Infinity Spot XL — The sister wash 

fixture to the Infinity Spot XL was used on AC/ 

DC’s Black Ice tour. Co-lighting designer Tony 

Hill said he chose the fixtures “for their power 

and ability to create energy without moving 

or strobing the lights.” 

Martin MAC III — The new flagship automated 

lighting fixture from Martin, the MAC 

shows and feature films. The MTV Unplugged 

series was shot at NEP Studios in New York 

with a two-day turnaround. 

“It’s been interesting to work on a series 

shot for the Web,” Landy said, adding that 

“Web programming is a growing trend. At 

least one song from each show comes into 

rotation on MTV and MTV2, and now Palladia 

HD has picked up the series in full HD.” 

Mills and art director Scott Kawczynski 

III, was on the Billy Joel/Elton John tour. LD 

Mark Fafano said it’s “extremely bright” and 

its optics are “amazing.” 

PRG Bad Boy — PRG calls the Bad Boy a 

“hybrid luminaire that combines the qualities 

of a traditional automated light with a large 

venue fixture.” LD Willie Williams, who is currently 

using them for the U2 tour, said “I think 

it’s fair to say that they are absolutely remarkable.” 

Vari-Lite VL 3500 Wash — You can hardly 

see a touring show without these workhorse 

automated moving yoke fixtures. LD John 

Dickson of LD Systems used them for 20 

nights of shows during the Houston Livestock 

and Rodeo. “I love how you can get such a 

tight beam in the Vari-Brite mode,” he said. 

Video 

Barco/High End Systems ShowPix — Lawrence 

“Loz” Upton used 12 ShowPix on the 

latest Crystal Method tour. The combination 

LED color wash/graphic image display 

fixture was the first in the High End Systems 

pixelation line. 

Martin LC Plus — Martin’s LC Plus modular 

LED video panels have an IP rating of 65 

and are designed for low weight and high 

transparency. 

Main Light Industries MF3 — A panel containing 

three Martin Stagebars in vertical 

rows of 54 pixels each make up the display 

area of the MF3. They are currently on tour 

Lighting MTV Unplugged for the Internet 

did the production design for the shows, creating 

“something of a speakeasy vibe that 

harkened back to the older Unpluggeds,” he 

said. The designers took a more streamlined 

approach to the décor, however, “because 

we needed to be able to take sets down and 

whisk them away in a heartbeat.” 

“Chris knows how to work something up 

in an unparalleled way,” said Mills. “When we 

first turned on the lights he took our breath 

away. And he’s shown us 10 different looks, 

which were all great. Chris has been able to 

take our simplified set and make it look much 

more complex with a variety of lighting techniques. 

He was able to change the lighting 

from song to song so it’s moody for one track 

and bright and vibrant in another.” 

Landy supported the “simple and elegant 

look” of Mills’ and Kawczynski’s set with a 

complement of LEDs. “We kept it simple, too, 

starting with 18 LEDs and adding six more. 

with the Jonas Brothers. 

Philips Color Kinetics iColor Flex — The 

LED strand of lights enables any surface to 

become a video display. It’s been used on 

many custom designs. 

Zap Technology RGBig LED — The company 

known for its large format lights, Zap 

Technology, has mounted an LED panel on a 

single-armed yoke fixture base. 

Staging 

Brown United Post Technology Towers — 

These towers can be used to construct anything 

from delay towers to roofs. They were 

used for Billy Joel and Aerosmith. 

CM Entertainment Technology Prostar 

Chain Hoist — The manufacturer of the 

Lodestar recently introduced a smaller version 

called the Prostar. 

Stageline SL100 Mobile Stage Mix Position 

— The SL100 mobile stage has been around 

a while, but the new SL100 Mobile Stage Mix 

Position is a new multi-level FOH unit that 

can be ready in one hour. 

Tomcat Edge Truss — Edge is a line of 

“intelligent” pre-rig truss designed so four 

would fit in the width of a typical truck. The 

truss also features stacking spigots. 

Tyler Truss GT Truss —Tyler’s Green Truss 

(GT) was designed from the ground up to 

save space and weight. Fixtures travel inside 

the truss sections for faster load-in and out 

as well as setup and tear-down. 

It’s always surprising what you can do on a 

show of that size.” 

Landy’s lighting rig was comprised of 36 

ETC Source Four lekos; 12 PAR 64 1K MFLs; 12 

1K T3 striplights; 12 1K single-cell cyc lights; 

24 Colorblast 12s; and an ETC Express 250. 

Mills, who has teamed with Landy several 

times before, says the lighting designer “is always 

my first call. You just tell Chris what you 

need, and he makes it happen. He’s able to 

do more things with less money than most 

people do with big budgets. He’s an intuitive, 

artistic guy who can run with little direction. 

And he always assembles a small but dedicated 

crew.” 

Matthew Piercy served as associate lighting 

designer on the series with Gerard McCarthy 

and CC Cooperstock as gaffers. Remote 

Digital Media, where Sandy Bondorowsky is 

technical supervisor, furnished the engineering 

and camera gear. 


All Time Low performs for the Web, lit by LD Christopher Landy. 

12 


CHICAGO — A tribute to architect Daniel 

Burnham, who is credited with drafting the 

first master plan for Chicago 100 years ago, 

includes two temporary pavilions designed 

by two of today’s leading architects, each lit 

with Iluminarc architectural lighting fixtures. 

The pavilions, in Chicago’s Millennium 

Park, were designed by Amsterdam-based 

Ben van Berkel and Zaha Hadid of London and 

lit by LD Tracey Dear of Dear Productions. 

Since they opened this summer, thousands 

have visited Berkel’s high gloss structure 

with three scoop-like supports and 

Hadid’s pavilion, which uses a silver-gray tent 

fabric to cover a 7,000-piece aluminum structure, 

with oblong slits along the top, which 

function as skylights. 


For Berkel’s pavilion, Dear specified 21 

Ilumipod 18 and 54 Ilumipod 36 IP Optic RGB 

units. They are embedded in the floor of the 

pavilion and respond to an automated control 

system that triggers changes in hues and 

intensity depending on where people stand. 

For Hadid’s pavilion, Dear also used Ilumipod 

18 and Ilumipod 36 IP Optic RGB lights to 

illuminate the “fluid form” that is at the heart 

of that pavilion, designed by the only woman 

to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize. 

“It was our intent to make Hadid’s pavilion 

warm while van Berkel’s is more playful,” 

Dear said. Hadid’s fabric was very porous, “so 

it does soak up the color, whereas van Berkel’s 

pavilion has a reflective finish to bounce the 

light between the two surfaces” of the floor 

and roof, Dear added. Hadid’s 

pavilion is lit with “dark, saturated 

complementary colors” 

for a more futuristic look, vs. 

pastels for van Berkel’s pavilion. 

“To have the opportunity 

to illuminate these historic 

pavilions by two of the mostrecognized 

living architects is 

an honor,” said Jamey Brock, director 

of sales at Chauvet and 

head of global sales for Iluminarc. 

“When Tracey Dear called 

and asked if we were ready, I 

did not hesitate, and our team 

responded remarkably. “ 

NEWS 

Chicago Pays Tribute to Master Architect with LED-Lit Pavilions 

Parnelli Board Welcomes 

More Sponsors for Gala 

LAS VEGAS—The Parnelli Award Board of 

Advisors announces that more sponsors are 

supporting Parnellis Awards’ ninth annual gala, 

set for Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. at the Peabody Hotel in 

Orlando, Fla. 

“Honoring our most talented professionals 

is only possible with the sponsors’ support,” says 

Terry Lowe, executive producer of the Parnellis. 

New Gold Sponsors include: Barco, Chaos 

Visual Productions, Maryland Sound, Tour Tech 

East and Ultratec Special Effects. New Silver 

Sponsors include PixelRange. Maryland Sound 

is also sponsoring the Neil Diamond Crew Reunion 

cocktail party with See Factor. That event 

starts at 7 p.m., also at the Peabody Hotel. 

“I started in the entertainment business in 

1975 as a kid in high school and fell in love with 

this business,” says Peter Hendrickson, president 

of Tour Tech East. “This event provides the opportunity 

for all of us to show appreciation and 

support for the efforts and personal sacrifices 

these people have made. We are a proud Canadian 

company and pleased to support the 

Parnelli Awards.” 

“Everyone here at Barco/High End Systems 

is incredibly honored that Richard Belliveau has 

been selected to receive the Parnelli Visionary 

Award,” says Chris Colpaert, vice president of 

creative lighting for Barco. “There are visionaries 

in every industry, but especially within the 

realm of lighting, Richard’s contributions and 

innovations truly set him apart. With talent such 

as his within the organization, we’re proud to 

be a sponsor of this year’s Parnelli awards, and 

equally excited about what Richard has in store 

for us in the pipeline.” 

“Ultratec Special Effects is a proud sponsor 

of the 2009 Parnelli Awards,” says Marnie Styles, 

vice president, sales. “These awards are a great 

way of recognizing the dedication of those who 

work behind the scenes and for the development 

of innovative products.” 

Bob See of the See Factor says that he’s cosponsoring 

the cocktail party for Stan Miller and 

former Diamond Crew members because from 

the time he met him 45 years ago he was one 

of the first who saw mixing live sound as an art 

form. “Stan sees sound the way lighting people 

hear lights, as in ‘more blue out of the monitors, 

please,’” See says. “Having provided lighting 

equipment and personnel for Neil Diamond 

tours for over 18 years, we are happy to honor 

all the crew members past and present.” 

Jake Berry, production manager for U2, will 

be receiving the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement 

Award. Dennis DeYoung, one of the founders 

of Styx whose recent multi-media concerts and 

work in musical theater continues to feature top 

live event production values, will be the MC. 

For tickets, go to www.parnelliawards.com/ 

reservations. 

LD Tracey Dear chose Iluminarc LEDs for Zaha Hadid’s pavilion in Millennium Park. 

Ben Dickmann

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 


South African Tattoo Lighting Design Gets Energy-Efficient 

JOHANNESBURG — Gearhouse South Africa 

supplied all technical production, including, 

lighting, power, structures, audience seating and 

sound, for the 2009 South African Tattoo at Montecasino, 

balancing visual dynamics with more 

energy-efficient gear. 

The show featured over 600 local and international 

performers, blending the traditional Tattoo 

spectacle of massed pipe bands and Highland 

dancers with an African flavor. It was the 

second year that Gearhouse has been involved 

in the event, working for producers MC Squared. 

SABC2 also supported the show and recorded it 

for later broadcast. 

This year the show’s production and lighting 

designer, Tim Dunn, lit the parade ground 

performance area solely with moving lights and 

LED fixtures. That allowed for a reduction in the 

amount of power needed to run the show, using 

two generators vs. the five used for the 2008 

events. 

The 4,500 audience seats were supplied 

by Havaseat (part of the Gearhouse Group of 

companies) and configured as three stands, positioned 

around three sides of the arena. 12 interlink 

trucks were required to transport the 90 

tonnes of scaffolding and 200 tonnes of seating 

stands to the site, but the build took only six days 

to complete. 

The fourth element of the space was a “castle 

wall,” a 40-meter-by-seven-meter Layher structure 

built by Gearhouse 

Structures, with a printed 

skin stretched across the 

front, simulating the real 

wall of the Montecasino 

Castle. 

Gearhouse had created 

this same scenic 

element last year, with 

photographic images 

taken from the actual 

castle wall. Apart from 

looking very authentic, 

this allowed for a deck 

to be built into the top of 

the structure so the Lone 

Piper could assume the appropriate position to 

play The Last Post. 

Gearhouse Structures built 50 meter scaffolding-based 

technical platforms running along 

the back/top of the two lengthways seating 

stands to facilitate the rigging of moving lights 

used for the parade grounds. 

The FOH tower and another identical production 

tower were built house left and house 

right, strategically offset in the gaps between the 

ends of the back stand and long stands to keep 

the site lines clear. An additional lower camera 

platform was built in between these, and then 

two trussing goal posts, one each side, were 

erected between the two outer towers and the 

Gearhouse SA once again supported the 2009 South African Tattoo, but with only two generators this 

year, versus five for the 2008 event. 

camera platform. These gave extra rigging points 

for lighting fixtures. 

Lights were also rigged along the top of the 

castle wall and on the floor of the Parade Ground 

for low-level beam effects. 

Dunn’s design used about 120 moving lights, 

a mix of Robe ColorWash and ColorSpot 700 and 

2500E ATs and Martin Professional MAC 2000s. To 

light the audience, 110 i-Pix Satellite LED bricks 

were arranged along the tech platforms on each 

side and also on the FOH and production towers, 

the camera platform and the goalposts. 

Dunn programmed and operated the lighting 

using a grandMA full size console. 

Gearhouse Structures also built two followspot 

towers in the corners facing the castle, each 

housing two 3K Gladiators, with two more towers 

and one Gladiator each at both ends of the 

castle wall. 

Gearhouse Power supplied two 300KVA 

generators to run all the various technical production 

elements, drawing a maximum load of 

464 Amps. The cable runs of 150m and 100m 

were split into two sides and a further split between 

lighting and audio to ensure no interference 

from lighting equipment was heard on the 

audio system. 

The Tattoo was project managed for Gearhouse 

by Michael Lewis. 

The South African Tattoo “can now be ranked 

among the best in the world,” said Simon Carter, 

executive producer, relaying comments heard 

by participants and observers alike. He credited 

Gearhouse for its support. 


Transformable Stage Elements Set Into 

Motion for Madonna’s 2009 Tour 

An XLNT CyberHoist motor system controlled the movements of the video screen 

TEL AVIV, Israel — This summer’s 

continuation of Madonna’s Sticky and 

Sweet tour used an XLNT CyberHoist 

intelligent motor system both for animating 

the opening seconds of the 

show and a variety of complex screen 

and lighting movements throughout 

the evening. 

The largest screens were controlled 

by XLNT’s InMotion3D software 

running on a CyberHoist FPS 

Full Production System with dual 

Apple MacPros, under the guidance 

of Martin Hoop, senior programmer 

and project manager, with assistance elements. 

by Erik Gielen. 

The action began with a large video cube 

that opened the show displaying a replica of the 

ornate “M” symbol flanking Madonna’s stage. 

The front part, dubbed the “Venetian” screen, 

morphed into surreal video imagery that appeared 

to be slowly shredded into horizontal 

strips as the front face of the cube was pulled 

apart vertically by a pair of CyberHoist 1 ton motors 

at the top edge. 

Ultimately revealing the star herself, the 

movement was completed when another pair of 

1-ton CyberHoist motors at the base of the piece 

pulled the lower leaves upward and out of sight. 

The show employed a total of 11 one-ton CyberHoist 

and 18 half-ton CyberHoist motors, with 

each of three upstage lighting pods, all carrying 

Syncrolite searchlights, moved by a combination 

of two half-ton and one-ton CyberHoists under 

the command of a separate control system with 

XLNT InMotion3D software running on a Cyber- 

Hoist PS Production System. 

Forming another key visual element were 

two concentric circles of Element Lab Stealth 

screens, flown over the stage thrust and “B” stage. 

The circles were designed to move in conjunction 

or separately from each other, each flown 

from four half-ton CyberHoists. 

The central Venetian screen was accompanied 

by two moving Nocturne 20mm LED 

screens upstage, which tracked on Tait Towers 

Trollybeams while being lifted and lowered on 

two one-ton CyberHoists per screen, with that 

combination allowing for 3D movement. 

The final element was a pair of rear screens, 

composed of Nocturne V9 9mm pixel pitch LED 

walls, each flown from a pair of half-ton Cyber- 

Hoists. 

LeRoy Bennett served as production and 

lighting designer, Chris Lamb as tour production 

director, Benny Collins as tour production 

manager, Jerry “Hodge” Vierna as stage manager, 

Mac Mosier as lighting director and Jamie King 

as show director. 

“The most challenging aspect was translating 

particular movements that Roy Bennett, 

Jamie King and video director Christian Lamb 

wanted to see happen at a certain speed and 

make it work in the time required for the piece 

travel from A to B,” said Hoop. 

Two CyberHoist crews ran the tour’s duplicate 

systems: the Advanced Crew, headed by Jan 

Hoefnagels, which rigged the largest elements 

of the system, and the Show Crew, which completed 

the job. 

After last year’s European, North American 

and South American dates, the 2009 tour has 

visited Europe, Eastern Europe including Russia, 

and reached its conclusion in Israel. 

14 


Polish Beauty Pageants 

Use LED Curtain as Stage 

Backdrop 

PLOCK, Poland —Aram Multimedia 

supported the finale for three beauty 

pageants that took place here recently, 

Polish Miss 2009, Miss Supranational 2009 

and Miss Teen 2009 Poland, with nearly 

80 square meters of LED curtain. 

The LED curtain, from Fourlight, provided 

LED visuals as a stage backdrop, 

and was hung on 17 suspended belts 

ranging in height from 3 meters to 7 meters. 

Aram also rented 20 square meters 

of LED screen, which was suspended in 

the center of the stage at the height of 

3 meters. 

The crew included Pavel Zeitz and 

Gerard Parzutka, the events’ organizers; 

Simon Losiewicz, its director; Adam Tyszka, 

lighting director; Leszek Malinkiewicz 

with the stage building team and the 

crew from Polsat, POKiZ and others. 


MAYNOOTH, Ireland — The Mantra Garden 

Bar & Club, an investment of about $7 million, 

might have racked up an even more impressive 

cost total if Frank Murray, proprietor 

of sound and lighting specialist Audiotek, had 

opted for something besides the PR Lighting 

fixtures for the double-floor venue. 

“They deliver more bang for the buck,” 

Murray said, of the eight Solo 250 moving 

head fixtures from PR Lighting that are 

mounted on a circular truss that surrounds 

an LED centerpiece in the Mantra nightclub 

upstairs. There, the Solo 250s duke it out with 

lasers, scanners and an ever-changing LED 

peripheral landscape. 

Murray, who is no stranger to PR Lighting 

gear, is also confident the cost-savings won’t 

just be for the short term. “I must have used 

these in over 50 venues now,” he said, adding 

that they are “exceptionally reliable.” He also 

said, “the color is consistent, and for an entry 

level product they perform way above their 

class, rock solid and flicker free.” 

The Mantra nightclub also uses four PR 

Lighting Orland scanners, also run off a Light 

Jockey controller, while downstairs in Harveys 

Bar, Murray specified eight PR Lighting 

Pilot 150s as the main dancefloor effect, with 

eight scenes and eight programs stored in a 

PR Lighting PK60 memory controller. 

Distributors MilTec (UK) Ltd supplied all 

the PR Lighting gear. The Deluxe Group of 


Audiotek Keeps Costs in Check for $7 Million Irish Nightclub 

Portadown served as the main contractors 

for the Mantra project, which is operated by 

Kavanagh Group. 

The Mantra Garden Bar & Club is equipped with PR Lighting 

fixtures 

In all, 83 beauty contestants vied with each other, and 

the set, for the attention of the viewing audience. 




“Out of the Wings and Into the Wind:” First Night Riders Get Ready to Roll 

LONDON — Inspired by the Long 

Reach Long Riders, a group of theatricallyinclined 

bikers has formed in the U.K. to 

raise money for The Theatrical Guild, which 

offers support to those working backstage 

and in front of house. 

The event, set for June 5-12, 2010, is 

being organized by David and Brenda 

Edelstein of Triple E Ltd., which makes theatrical 

track systems. David has taken part 

in four of the six Long Reach Long Riders 

events. The ride will tour the U.K., visiting 

theatrical venues of interest along the 

way. 

The group’s launch at PLASA09 was supported 

by Brian Conley and Liz Robertson 

(both currently starring in Hairspray), Issy van 

Randwyck of Fascinating Aida and actress 

Fiona Mollison. 

Although the exact route and list of riders 

is subject to change, John Barnes, Richard 

Bullimore, Steve Colley, Neil Collins, David 

Edelstein, George Ellerington, Ric Green, Darrell 

Hewitt, Simon Le Bon, Simon Nichols, Michael 

Powell and Bill Sapsis from the U.S. have 

all expressed interest in taking part. Stephen 

Pennington, Brenda Edelstein, Robert Hamilton 

and Scott Miller from Canada have offered 

chase car support. 

The ride will finish on Saturday 

June 12, in time for the 

2010 Theatre Engineering and 

Architecture Conference, which 

opens the following day. 

Among the associations 

and companies that have already 

pledged sponsorship are 

ABTT, Blitz Sound, Cameron 

Mackintosh, ETC, Hall Stage, 

Harmer PR, Howard Eaton, J&C 

Joel, PLASA, Prompt Side and 

Triple E Ltd. 

From left, Fiona Mollision, Brian Conley, Liz Robertson, Brenda and David Edelstein 

and Issy van Randwyck at the PLASA09 launch. 

Harmer PR 

iPhone App Raises $2,800 for Light Relief 

Luke Delwiche presents Light Relief trustee Lesley Harmer 

with the proceeds from ETC’s iRFR app 

LONDON — When ETC introduced its 

iRFR (Radio Focus Remote for iPhone 

and iPod Touch) four months ago, Luke 

Delwiche from ETC Tech Services in 

London suggested that the profits be 

shared between Light Relief and its U.S. 

equivalent, Behind the Scenes. 

At PLASA/09, Luke was able to 

present a check for £1,800 (more than 

$2,800) to Light Relief trustee Lesley 

Harmer. In thanking Luke for the money, 

Lesley said: “This is an incredible 

amount of money to raise in just four 

months. We thank Luke and everyone 

at ETC for their generosity and for a 

brilliant idea which will continue to 

raise money for this worthwhile cause 

year after year.” 

When users purchase the iRFR application 

from the iTunes store, they designate 

the charity of their choice. The 

Light Relief or Behind the Scenes logo 

then appears as the iRFR start screen. 

ETC software engineer Chris Mizerak 

developed the application with a view 

to making it as user-friendly and direct 

as any Apple application, with full security 

controls to lock out all unauthorized 

users. 

Because the iRFR application is purchased 

through iTunes for iPhones and 

iPod Touches that people already own, 

they install it and have it immediately 

— no hardware or special factory-coding 

required. And an added benefit: if 

you misplace your lighting-system remote 

— just call your phone and find 

it! 

Finland’s Battle of the Choirs Gets Elaborate 

Stage and Lighting Design 

LAHTI, Finland — Called Kuorosota, or Battle 

of the Choirs, this Finnish singing contest 

is a choir-meets-rock ‘n’ roll showdown that 

forgoes the stoic formalities of a traditionally 

robed choir. As such, it warranted an elaborate 

staging and lighting setup that included Clay 

Paky’s Alpha Beam 300. 

The format is similar to a singing contest, 

but with amateur choir participants selected 

by the top choral leaders in Finland. These 

choirs then compete with popular songs during 

a six-week live television broadcast. 

TV viewers vote, and the list of contenders 

gets trimmed by one choir a week. The winning 

group gets to decide which hometown charity 

is most worthy of receiving the top prize, 

which is 40,000 Euros, or mort than $56,000. 

Some 500,000 viewers — about one-tenth the 

population of Finland — tune in each week. 

The live television broadcasts were held at 

Lahti Hall on TV channel Nelonen Finland, produced 

by Heidi Karsikko of Metronome Film & 

Television and directed by Niko Nykänen. 

The stage, lighting, sound and rigging for 

the 2009 broadcasts were done by Mikki Kunttu 

Oy, who also served as production designer. 

The lighting rig included 24 Clay Paky Alpha 

Beam 300 fixtures, controlled by a grandMA 

full size console and a grandMA NSP. The lighting 

operator was Pasi Saari. 

“The Alpha Beams brought in a very important 

dimension to the lighting. They added a lot 

of needed depth into the backgrounds in a lot 

of camera shots. I really like the simplicity of the 

fixture and the 

punch it delivers,” 

said Kunttu. 

The final 

votes put Timo 

Kotipelto and 

his choir on top, 

making them 

the 2009 Kuorosota 

Champs. 

Timo decided 

the charity 

money should 

go for music 

education and 

band rehearsal 

spaces in Lappajärvi. 

The six-week contest was lit with 

Alpha Beam 300s from Clay Paky. 

Mikki Kunttu 



16 


Lighting & Sound International 


D.T.S. Names Lightfactor Distributor for U.K., Ireland 

LONDON — D.T.S. named Lightfactor its 

exclusive U.K. and Irish distributor. Lightfactor’s 

sales manager, Peter Coles, noted that 

Lightfactor will also be appointing a series of 

sub-distributors for selected D.T.S. product 

groups. 

“We wanted to team up with a progressive 

thinking partner that could offer a full, innovative, 

high quality range of LED, moving light, 

theatrical range of luminaires and par cans for 

the entertainment and architectural sectors, 

and D.T.S. is the perfect choice,” Coles said. 

LONDON 

— Since 2003, 

when Rosco 

i n t roduced 

#313 Light 

Relief Yellow 

to its Supergel 

range, 

Mark Engel, president, Rosco, and John the company 

Simpson, Light Relief trustee and chairman has contributed 

of White Light. 

more 

than $19,000 to the U.K. charity Light Relief, and 

Coles added that one of the things that 

impressed Lightfactor about D.T.S. was that 

their production process is primarily based 

in-house, allowing for precise quality control 

standards. They also thought the product 

range was an ideal fit for Lightfactor’s 

portfolio. 

D.T.S. recently added the XR2000 Beam, 

XR3000 Spot CMY and XR3000 Beam to its 

product line, which includes the Titan and 

FOS lines of LED luminaires and the Delta 

line of LED color-changing wash fixtures. 

Peter Coles, Lightfactor and Franco 

Zaghini, DTS. 

Rosco Raises Another $4,100 for Light Relief 

Eight of Martin’s MAC 250 Washes became MAC 250 Beams. 

HERNING, Denmark —Lighting Designer Paul 

Normandale has added to the number of lighting 

fixtures used for a series of European stadium 

shows for Coldplay’s ongoing Viva La Vida tour, 

including a conversion of eight MAC 250 Washes 

into new MAC 250 Beams. 

Martin Professional’s MAC 250 Beam upgrade 

kit converts any standard Martin MAC 250 Wash 

into a beam fixture that projects variably sized 

pencil beams. 

Normandale, who serves as production designer 

handling lights, set and video on the tour, 

chose to use the MAC 250 Beam because of the 

outdoor set’s 180-foot-wide span, which lets the 

250 Beams to do aerial work as well as cross light. 

Located on the stage floor on side wings, the 

250 Beams can also provide mid air effects. The 

upgrade kit includes a micro Fresnel lens and set 

at PLASA09 one of the charity’s trustees, John 

Simpson, accepted a check for the latest donation 

of over $4,100 (about £2,500). 

“This is the largest check we have presented 

to Light Relief since the program began,” said 

Mark Engel, president of Rosco, when presenting 

the check. “We knew this would be ‘a gift that 

keeps on giving’ but I don’t think we ever anticipated 

just how successful it would be.” 

Developed with the help of Rick Fisher, cofounder 

(along with the late Tony Gottelier) of 

the industry charity which supports lighting designers 

in difficult times, Light Relief Yellow is the 

same color as the charity’s logo. 

“While one-off donations are extremely 

welcome, it’s regular donations such as this 

that enable us to make immediate decisions 

as to how we are able to help those in need,” 

said John, who is also chairman of White Light. 

“It is wonderful that the charity is supported 

by such unending contributions: this not only 

reminds users of Light Relief, but also of Rosco’s 

creative generosity every time the color is 

specified.” 

LD Paul Normandale Fine-Tunes Rig for Coldplay Stadium Shows 

of six beam effect gobos/apertures and can be installed 

in five minutes. 

Normandale credited “the real power” of the 

250 Beam. “We even run one song with 7k Syncrolites 

and the 250 Beams together,” he noted. “Regarding 

the upgrade process, there were no issues 

and it was quick. They’ve been great so far.” 

The stadium show rig includes 52 MAC 2000 

Wash XBs, 44 MAC 700 Profiles, nine MAC 700 

Washes, 32 Atomic 3000 strobes, 14 MAC 250 

Washes and eight MAC 250 Beams. 

The lighting vendor is Lite Alternative. The 

board operator is Fraser Elisha and the crew chief 

is Dave Favorita. 




ON THE MOVE 


Arup has named 

Robert Young senior 

theatre consultant. 

Young, who has more 

than 20 years technical 

theatre experience, will 

lead West Coast theatre 

design operations from 

Arup’s Los Angeles office. 

Creative Technology 

has appointed Scott 

Hichew as business development 

manager. 

Hichew, who has 13 

years of experience on 

the production side 

of the meetings and 

Robert Young 

Scott Hichew 

events industry, will be based out of CT Chicago 

and will focus on medium and large scale 

events both locally and around the country. 

Daktronics Inc. 

named Edward A. (Ted) 

Paget regional sales 

manager of its Vortek 

division. Paget will be 

responsible for Vortek 

rigging systems in the 

Central United States 

Ted Paget 

and Eastern Canada. Prior to Vortek, Paget 

was vice president and senior associate with 

Jones & Phillips Associates, Inc. 

GoVision L.P. 

added Alex Bethke to 

the company’s technical 

team. Bethke will 

work out of GoVision’s 

facilities in Keller, and 

will move with the rest 

of the staff to the company’s 

new headquarters campus in Argyle 

Alex Bethke 

later this year. 

Harkness Screens 

named Jeff Samitt as 

group director, sales 

& marketing. Samitt 

brings a 14-year career 

in marketing strategy, 

new product development 

and brand management 

with him to Harkness. 

Jeff Samitt 

Illumination Dynamics has moved to 

a new Los Angeles area facility with 70,000 

square feet of warehouse space and 11,000 

square feet of offices, repair, conference, and 

demo rooms, including production crew offices. 

The company’s Web site address is www. 

illuminationdynamics.com. 

The Lighting Design Group has announced 

that Trevor Gooch has joined its 

staff as a full time gaffer and production 

electrician. Gooch had previously worked as 

a freelance gaffer and 

electrician with LDG 

for such projects such 

as the 2008 Summer 

Olympics in Beijing, 

the relight of the QVC 

Studios in Westchester, 

Penn. and the 2008 

Election Plaza at Rockefeller Center. 

Mountain Light Co. announced the opening 

of its new shop and offices in Denver. The 

new address is: 4920 Fox Street, Unit B, Denver, 

CO 80216. The company can still be reached at 

719-536-9700, or at 303-572-9700. The fax number, 

303-293-9701, is new. 

Multi-Lite (UK) Ltd. 

announced a change of 

management following 

Guy Merchant’s departure 

from the company, 

naming Mark Anderson 

general manager. Anderson 

will be supported 

by Gary Waywell, sales 

manager. The company 

also announced its 

move to: Unit 30, Metropolitan 

Centre, 8, Taunton 

Road, Greenford, 

Middlesex,UB6 8UQ. The 

phone number has been 

Trevor Gooch 

Mark Anderson 

Gary Waywell 

changed to +44 20 3255 2050 and the fax number 

to +44 20 3255 2060. The Web address remains 

multi-lite.com/uk. 

Norcostco Inc. 

opened a new project design 

and sales office in Colorado 

Springs, Colo. The location 

will be run by Derry 

D. Hirsch, who has been 

the head of outside sales 

Gialuca Farina 

and design for over seven 

years at the Minneapolis home office. Hirsch can 

be reached at Derry.Hirsch@norcostco.com, or 

at 719.687.6173 (phone) and 719.687.6174 (fax). 

Catalog sales and costume rental for the area 

will still be handled by Norcostco’s Denver office, 

800.220.6928; denver@norcostco.com. 

Proel Group Professional 

has been formed 

and is being led by Gianluca 

Farina, who was 

named sales manager. 

The new division will offer 

Proel Group solutions 

for the Italian rental market, 

including the company’s own brands and the 

Derry D. Hirsch 

ones where it serves as distributor for the Italian 

market. Lighting gear includes Sagitter, which 

Proel acquired in February. Video gear includes 

Acronn, a manufacturer of LED walls. 



PLSN SPECIAL SECTION 



www. 

PLSN MONTH 2006 19

SHOWTIME PROJECTION 

LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS 

ST 

LA Opera 2009 Opening Celebration 

Venue 

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 

Los Angeles, Calif. 

Crew 

Promoter/Producer: LA Opera 

Production Manager: Mark 

O’Donnell, LA Music Center 

Lighting Designer: Chris Werner 

Design 

Lighting Director: Kathleen 

Dobbins 

Automated Lighting Operator: 

Chris Werner 

Lighting Technicians: IATSE 

Local #33 

Set Design: Special Occasion 

Event Planning 

Set Construction/Staging: Revelry 

Event Designers 

Rigger: Revelry Event Designers 

Gear 

Lighting Consoles: 1 grandMA 

Light, 1 grandMA onPC controller 

6 Vari-Lite VL2500 Spots 

50 Coemar PARLite LEDs 

4 Color Kinetics ColorBlaze72s 

110 ETC Source Fours 

70 ETC Source Four PARs 

30 PAR16 Birdies 

2 ETC Sensor dimmers 

Lighting Co. 

Illumination Dynamics 

Dragon Force 

ST 

Crew 

Lighting Designer/Director: 

Marco Ale 

Tour Manager/ 

Production Manager: 

Bruce Reiter 

Vendor Rep: Terry Crain 

Set Design/ 

Construction: All Access 

Staging & Productions 

Gear 

Lighting Consoles: 2 

grandMA Lite consoles 

12 Martin MAC 700 

Profiles 

10 Martin MAC 600 

Wash Fixtures 

36 Coemar ParLite LED 

Fixtures 

20 AC Lighting Color 

Blocks 

6 ACL Bars 

4 MR-16s 

4 12” B-Type trusses 

4 5” B-Type trusses 

2 Reel EFX DF-50 haze 

machines 

Lighting Co. 

Christie Lites 

ST 

GEP Washington “Club Fresh” Dance Party ST 

Venue 

Gaylord National Hotel and 

Convention Center 

National Harbor, Md. 

Crew 

Promoter/Producer: Jerry Jeffries at 

GEP Washington 

Production Manager/Lighting 

Designer: Andrew Platt 

Lighting Director: Amber Meade 

Automated Lighting Operator: Lindsey 

Suits 

Lighting Technicians: Atmosphere, Inc. 

Gear 

Consoles: 1 grandMA Light, 1 Flying Pig 

Systems Wholehog 1000 console, 1 High 

End Systems Axon media server 

2 Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes 

35 Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12s 

1 Le Maitre G300 Fogger/Hazer 

10 Martin MAC 2000 Wash Fixtures 

6 Martin MAC 2000 Profiles 

12 High End Systems Studio Color 575s 

12 High End Systems Studio Spot 575s 

8 High End Systems Studio Spot 250s 

12 High End Systems Technobeams 

1000’ Tomcat Minibeam truss 

Lighting Co. 

Atmosphere, Inc. 


20 PLSN OCTOBER 2009

ST 

Little Big Town/Zac Brown Band 

Venue 

Merillat Center 

Adrian, Mich. 

Crew 

Promoter/Producer: Molly 

Valasek, Event Resources 

Presents 

Production Managers: 

Shannon Stewart, Bobby 

Simmons, Glenn Felton 

Technical Directors: Mati 

Johnson, Chris Hinsberg 

Lighting Designers: Tony 

Travato, Russell Armentrout 

Lighting Director: Chad 

Landers 

Lighting Technician: Mike 

Howe 

System Techs: Kevin 

McWhorter, Derek Bele 

Riggers: Andy Gilbert, 

Al Zara 

Staging Co: Performance 

Lighting Michigan 

Staging Carpenter: Katie 

Peltz 

Gear 

Consoles: 1 grandMA Light, 

1 Avolites Pearl Expert 

16 Martin MAC 2000 Profiles 

16 Martin MAC 2000 Wash 

fixtures 

4 High End Systems 

Showguns 

PixelRange PixelLine 

1044s 

2 Lycian 1275 followspots 

2 Lycian SuperArc 400 

followspots 

2 LeMaitre Radiance 

hazers 

1 Reel EFX DF50 hazer 

CM LodeStar chain hoists 

Lighting Co. 

Performance Lighting 

Chicago 

CMA Music Festival 2009 

ST 

Lighting Co. 

Premier Global Production Co. 

Venue 

LP Field 

Nashville, Tenn. 

Crew 

Lighting Designer: Mike 

Swinford 

Lighting Director: Mark Butts, 

Ken Hudson, Mark Carver 

Lighting Gaffer: Jeff Gregson 

Lighting Crew Chief: Jon 

Nichols 

Lighting Technicians: Will 

Stinson, Chaim Chaveria, Chris 

Coffie, Charlie Phan, Neil Davis, 

Rob Chase 

Lighting Account Rep: Steven 

“Creech” Anderson 

Gear 

Lighting Consoles: 4 

grandMA consoles 

26 Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash 

fixtures 

8 Vari-Lite VL3500 Spot 

fixtures 

48 Vari-Lite VL3000 Profile 

fixtures 

100 Martin MAC 2000 Wash 

fixtures 

5 Lycian M2 Series 2.5k truss 

spots 

4 1k Orions 

80’ MR16 Mini Strips 

48 4-Light mole fay units 

8 3000W FOH followspots 

8 17” flat screen monitors 

1 data distribution rack w/ 

Ethernet-DMX NSPs 

1 production intercom system 

– 20 stations 

6 ProPower 48-way 208V 

Power Distros 

1 ETC Sensor 96-way touring 

dimmer rack 

1 ETC Sensor 48-way touring 

dimmer rack 

4 Reel EFX DF-50 hazers w/ 

fans 

5 top mounted spot chairs 

34 1-ton hoists 


2009 OCTOBER PLSN 

21

PRODUCTION PROFILE 


The Family That Works Together... 

Production manager Ed Wannebo helps keep Kenny Chesney 

productions all in the family 

By GrahamForrester 

In January of 2002, Ed Wannebo resigned 

from his production manager 

position for Tim McGraw to be the 

manager of a new production, the first 

headlining tour of McGraw’s opening act, 

Kenny Chesney. Since that tour eight 

years ago, Chesney has evolved into one 

of the biggest names in country western 

music and the touring industry at large. 

Ranked at the 15 th highest grossing tour 

in the world in 2009, Chesney’s claim is 

particularly remarkable since the entertainer 

has never played a show outside 

his home continent. 

The All-American touring sensation 

has watched his career evolve and blossom 

under Wannebo’s unorthodox yet hyper-efficient 

production style. This very 

same efficiency won Wannebo a Parnelli 

Award for Production Manager of the Year 

in 2008. How does such a humble entertainer 

consistently remain so popular and 

successful? Ed Wannebo spilled the beans 

at his Chesney show at AT&T Park in San 

Francisco. Apparently, the production is 

not just merely a well-oiled machine, but 

a dependable and fully functional family. 

“The crew will go to the wall for him. I mean, 

he [Kenny Chesney] certainly wants to 

make sure everybody has a good time and 

is appreciated for what they have done, and 

he wants their input into the show.” 

—Ed Wannebo 

Under the Parrot Light 

plsn 

The Chesney tour is unique due to its 

relaxed organization and atmosphere. 

Techs rode around the stadium stage 

on roller blades, the “bar & grill” was up 

and running and Johnsonville Bratwursts 

were handed out to the crew. In the back 

of the room sat “Daddy’s desk” (as Ed’s 

card table is lovingly labeled on site), and 

underneath the light of his 40-pound parrot 

desk lamp was where 

all of the organization of 

production took place. 

From such a relaxed atmosphere, 

how can such 

a professional and successful 

tour spawn? 

The answer is the dependability 

of the family. 

Ed keeps production 

costs low by consistently 

using the same team of 

personnel year after year. 

Dale Morris, Chesney’s 

senior manager, is also 

the owner and operator 

of Morris Leasing, a well 

known sound and light company. When 

Chesney began touring nearly a decade 

ago, his sound and lights were conveniently 

provided by Morris, and have been 

ever since. The Morris group provided 

this same service for another one of their 

clients, Alabama, some 20-plus years ago. 

Danny O’Bryan at Screenworks has been 

providing the video since 2004, and both 

O’Bryan and Morris offer affordable deals 

to production due to their loyalty and 

consistency. The Chesney production has 

also kept set costs low by reworking and 

reusing the existing mobilating set pro- 

Ed Wannebo, a.k.a. “Daddy.” 

vided by All Access Staging and Productions. 

“We’re kind of a unique machine in 

that we kind of put the tour together ourselves,” 

says Wannebo. “We book it and 

sell it in house; we produce a lot of the 

stadium stuff ourselves with the Messina 

group.” 

Holding Down Costs 

plsn 

This self-reliant business model keeps 

the Chesney costs very low, allowing the 

production team to project future costs 

and make adjustments, and it makes the 

CREW 

Management: Morris Management Group 

Tour Producer/Marketing: Messina Group 

Travel: Preferred Travel 

Tour Manager: Dave Farmer 

Production Manager: Ed Wannebo, 

Production Solutions International 

Merchandising: Richards and Southern, Inc 

Video: Screenworks 

Lighting/Audio: Morris Leasing, Syncrolite 

Lighting & Set Design: Mike Swinford, 

UpLate Design 

Lighting Programmer: Mike Butts 

Stage Manager: Tom Nisun 

Lighting Crew Chief: JD White 

Lighting Director: Michael “Sparky” Anderson 

Master Electrician: Jackson Becky Kaufman 

Lighting Techs: Allen Gibson, Marshall Blair 

Dimmer Tech: Chuck Myers 

Deck/Spot Operators: Jonathan Earp, Travis 

Edwards, Daniel Wright 

Video Director: Jay Cooper 

Crew Chief/Video Wall Tech: Brian Littleton 

Video Engineers: Keith “Houston” Lockett, 

Rick Popham 

Lead LED Engineer: Craig “Bundy” Boyd 

Camera Operators/Video Wall Techs: Tim 

“TC” Cerola, Josh Clark, Brian Keyes 

Vibe/Production Assistant: Mark Tamburino 

Outdoor Staging and Roof: Stageco 

Indoor Staging & Set: All Access Staging & 

Productions, Inc. 

Head Rigger: Jake Schoultz 

Riggers: Tim Cole, Jesse Sugimoto, Jimmy 

Vaughan 

Automation: Mike Mitani, Steve “Gooch” 

Robinson 

Load Master: Dwayne “Buzz” Gibson 

Stage Carpenters: Kevin Fiore, David Ogle, 

Hugh Horn 

Coach Co: Hemphill Brothers 

Truck Company: Upstaging, Inc. 

Catering: TourCats Catering 

Itineraries: Smart Art 

Softgoods: Sew What, Inc 

Production Office Manager: Jill Trunnell 

Tour Management Asst: Robin Majors 

TMG Promoter Rep: Helena Pygrum 

Production Assistant: Jeff Snider 

Stadium Site Coordinator: John Morrison 

Stadium Production Assistant: Hunter 

Burks 


Chesney tour a very 

reliable client for 

their gear providers 

The Chesney tour 

runs smoothly due to 

the loyalty and trust 

of their longstanding 

promoters and crew. 

Kenny still uses the 

same third party promoters 

he did when 

he began headlining 

tours eight years previous. 

“Some of the 

shows,” Wannebo 

states, “have to go to 

Live Nation and other 

regional promoters, 

but Kenny has never 

forgotten the guys 

that helped him out 

on the front end, so 

there are some smaller 

promoters around 

the country that always 

get their shows. 

He doesn’t just blanket it out to one of the 

big boys.” 

The Chesney family also takes care of its 

fans. Due to the state of the current market, 

the Chesney team tries to keep costs 

low to provide a relatively inexpensive yet 

spectacular show. The average cost of a 

Chesney show is $67, which is much lower 

than some acts of similar size. 

“We keep an affordable ticket,” says 

Wannebo. “Up front on the floor here is 

probably $105, but you can buy a $35 ticket. 

They try to have some sections that are 

around $25 even.” 

Taming Technology 

plsn 

The ticket pricing policy allows venues 

to still sell out, regardless of the country 

being in the midst of a recession, and that 

is made possible by careful, precise financing 

in the production department. The 

Chesney tour didn’t squander all its profits 

on technological upgrades in the first few 

years. 

“I think we’ve done a pretty good job 

of a protracted progression. Between Mike 

Swinford the designer and myself and Kenny, 

collectively, we’ve done a pretty good 

job of just growing and growing and adding 

technology and just staying at a sustainable 

pace of acceleration through his 

career.” 

The tour’s modest spending has helped 

prepared it for the unpredictable; if this production 

is not recession proof, then it is at 

least recession resistant. How badly has the 

recession affected the production? Wannebo 

replies, “Not that bad. Some markets we’re 

still blowing out the way we have, some 

markets we’re still doing great business. But 

people are just holding onto their money a 

little longer.” 

With the money saved through reconfiguring 

existing equipment and with Wannebo’s 

approach to economical production, 

the Chesney family is able to comfortably 

take care of their crew. At the end of the 

tour, Chesney takes his whole crew to the island 

of St. Thomas for a week-long vacation. 

“We flew out 116 people down there,” 

Wannebo said. “He puts them up in the Westin, 

always throws a big party on some other 

island, and we all jump in a bunch of boats 

and head over to Peter island,” says Ed, with 

a Caribbean grin across his face. 

Arena Rock, Country Style 

Carefully-managed spending keeps ticket prices low—$67 on average. 

“Some markets we’re still blowing out the way 

we have, some markets we’re still doing great 

business. But people are just holding onto their 

money a little longer.” —Ed Wannebo 

plsn 

From the pleasant, relaxed atmosphere 

of the load-in at AT&T Park, it was apparent 

that the Chesney 

team believes the carrot 

is a much better 

motivator than the 

stick. “Yeah, the crew 

will go to the wall for 

him. I mean, he certainly 

wants to make 

sure everybody has a 

good time and is appreciated 

for what 

they have done, and 

he wants their input 

into the show.” The 

mutual respect that 

all of the members 

of this multi-faceted 

production have for 

one another makes 

the tour seem more 

like a traveling family 

reunion than a mobile 

job site. 

The show also 

demonstrates the 

great leap forward 

that the country music 

touring market has taken in the past 

decade, making the lines between it and 

the rock ‘n’ roll industry so blurred as to 

be unrecognizable. The evolution of this 

industry is due to pioneers like Wannebo 

who took the business models of the huge 

arena-style rock tours and adapted them 

to country artists. 

So what does the future hold for this 

country superstar? How about playing 

out of the country, for starters? Ultimately, 

the decision is up to Chesney and 

his manager. But if this Knoxville-born 

hairstylist’s son can hang in with the big 

boys at the 15 th highest grossing tour 

spot worldwide as he has been doing, he 

might as well spread his music overseas. 

For now, Chesney is on his eighth U.S. tour 

and is more popular than ever. Wannebo 

attributes that to his wonderful family. 

“Everybody’s doing their part — the 

publicity side and the production side, 

we’re delivering, they’re selling, Kenny’s 

delivering out there. That’s the big thing.” 



PLSN Readers Select the Best 

Regional Lighting Companies 

By KevinM.Mitchell 

They do the staples of live event industry: 

fairs, festivals, street parties 

and sometimes even weddings. They 

put as much heart, sweat and creative 

energy into the local event held on the 

high school playground as that one-off 

Dave Matthews show or that kinetic jawdropping 

corporate launch. They are the 

local heroes who, day-in and day-out, do 

what needs to be done, with little recognition. 

But the Parnelli Board of Directors 

and those at PLSN are honored to recognize 

the achievements of these six diverse 

companies. 

You, the readers, have nominated and 

voted for the best regional lighting companies 

in North America. Each regional 

winner is automatically a finalist for the 

national Hometown Hero title — you can 

still vote at www.parnelliawards.com. 

While only one of the regional winners will 

receive the Parnelli Hometown Hero award 

Nov. 20 in Orlando, Fla., all are worthy of 

special recognition. 

CANADA 

Marty Anderson, president, Midnite Hour. 

Midnite Hour Productions 

Toronto, Ontario 

We’re aspiring to work with new technology 

and create our own market 

“ 

that takes new products and uses them 

in new ways, beyond the festival/ 

corporate meeting business that 

other companies are better at,” says 

Marty Anderson, president, Midnite 

Hour. “Frankly there are some good 

companies up here that do great at 

those things.” 

Anderson grew up on a farm near 

Brantford, Ontario and became a working 

class musician. “I was always renting 

gear, so I bought my own P.A. and that’s 

when this rollercoaster started!” The company, 

which started out as a sound company, 

borrowed its name from his 10-piece 

R&B band, Midnite Hour. Chasing festivals 

across the country, organizers noticed how 

good his system was and started hiring him 

to run sound for other acts. He quickly added 

lights, and in 1994, he opened his first 

warehouse. 

He saw the move to intelligent lighting 

and acquired some early on. When LEDs 

came around, he embraced that technology 

as well. Today his warehouse is 25,000 

square feet and bulging at the seams. Midnite 

employs 35 people and a lot of their 

business today is video work. They offer 

rigging services and products and soft 

goods. 

“At the beginning, being a one-stop shop 

was very important,” he says. “But honestly, 

we do less of that now because you can’t be 

great at everything to everybody. So the focus 

today is on lighting and video.” 

The company evolved gradually. They 

endeared themselves to corporations for 

their work in making those events really 

sparkle. “We work to be different and offer 

new ideas that fuel the fire of event planners.” 

For the last two years, they’ve handled 

the MuchMusic Video Awards (Canada’s answer 

to MTV). “This year we’ve used tons of 

LED and worked with major acts like the 

Jonas Brothers. We put the artist on a giant 

Plexiglas stage with all LED video panels 

underneath.” Other recent highlights include 

supplying some of the lighting/video 

equipment on various tours, including the 

Billy Joel/Elton John tour, the Black Eyed 

Peas and Nickelback. 

The biggest recent highlight is internal: 

Louis Racine, formerly of Christie Lites, has 

become a partner and head of operations, 

bringing valuable insights and skills. 

“I want to thank our local friends here 

for this honor,” he says. “It’s very exciting.” 

NORTHEAST REGION 

Starlite lit this Frito Lay corporate event featuring Sinbad. 

Starlite Productions 

Cherry Hill, N.J. 

Starlite Productions is a full-service 

provider of audio, video, lighting, 

staging, special effects and control 

systems, working out of a 25,000 

square foot warehouse. In 1983, 

Dean Danowitz, president, 

started out of a two-car garage, 

always re-investing in not only 

equipment but also people. He 

cites that as a major reason that 

Starlite has survived and thrived. 

“We’ve built a team of professionals 

who are enthusiastic and dedicated 

to the pursuit of customer satisfaction and 

the advancement of our art,” says Danowitz. 

He adds that in addition to being home to a 

team of creative designers, technicians and 

specialists, they have one of the largest inventories 

on the East Coast — in fact, they 

just purchased a new 53,000 square foot facility 

that he and his 50 co-workers will be 

moving into soon. 

In the 1980s, Starlite focused on building 

high-end nightclubs and then penetrated 

the burgeoning casino market in the region. 

From there, they expanded to professional 

theatre, corporate events and themed 

events. 

Recent highlights include providing 

video for Marc Anthony, a Frito Lay National 

Awards Ceremony and Eat Bulaga!, which is 

the longest-running variety show on Philippine 

television. Danowitz adds they’ve 

worked with David Cook of American Idol 

fame, VH1 and the Franklin Institute Awards, 

“which are among the oldest and most prestigious 

comprehensive science awards in the 

world.” 

On the installation side, Princeton University, 

Tobyhanna Army Depot and the 

118-year-old Baptist Temple have been 

among their recent installs. Danowitz adds 

they keep busy servicing many universities, 

casinos, house of worship, performing 

art centers, museums, retail and themed 

environments. 

“Having a true vision and passion for 

what we do is a reason for our success,” he 

says, adding that hiring talented people 

and creating lasting partnerships with employees, 

vendors and customers is another 

key. “We lead with quality, not price, and 

our drive is to constantly exceed our client’s 

expectations.” 

As far as receiving the honor, he states: 

“This award reaffirms that our efforts and 

drive to treat people squarely have resulted 

in Starlite being well-respected and 

esteemed by our customers and peers and 

the industry at large.” 

SOUTHEAST REGION 

Front, L-R: Cathy Karmakar, Brandon Ferebee, Tom Smith and 

son Tristan (photo), Brian Hatten and Scott Waterbury. Back Row: 

Steve May, Jon Waterbury, Big Bill Abner, Roby Dail and Scott 

Southern. 

Atlanta Sound & Lighting 

Atlanta, Ga. 

Scott Waterbury returns to 

winner circle having won a 

Parnelli for Best Sound Company 

in 2008. 

“I started Atlantic as a 

sound company in 1980 and 

became a lighting company 

when a lighting company 

that owed me money went 

out of business,” confesses Waterbury, 

owner/president. “But 

the passion for lighting quickly 

came out.” 

He credits Don Tyra for being 

his lighting guru and inspiring his 

love of lights. Tyra took him to his 

first LDI and pointed out the Clay 

Paky Golden Scans. They bought 

the only 12 available and for two 

years they had the only moving lights in Atlanta 

that weren’t Vari*Lites. “Don taught me 

lighting was an art form and not an equipment 

trend.” 

One of their first big breaks came when 

they were awarded the 1988 Democratic 

Convention in Atlanta. “We talked them into 

being the first convention to use moving 

lights,” he says. Today the company has 12 

full-time employees and 44 part-timers. And 

while Tyra has moved on, “Brian Hatten is the 

brains behind the lighting department now.” 

Recent highlights include Taylor Swift 

and the Jonas Brothers. “We specialize in 

one-off stuff — that way you can wash the 

glory off at the end of the day,” he laughs. 

They’ve also been involved with cruise line 

musical events. A recent “Rock Boat” floating 

event featured Lynyrd Skynyrd, John Mayer 

and .38 Special. They also do the big Fourth 

of July celebration in Atlanta’s Centennial 

Park. 

Asked the reason for their success, the 

self-deprecating Waterbury laughs and says, 

“I wish I knew! Then I’d do more of it! We just 

try and do our best. We’re careful who we 

hire and make sure the people we have fit 

with the clients. We’ve said no to jobs when 

we don’t think it’s a good fit. Sometimes a 

client is better off with someone else. 

“We don’t charge for the lights; we 

charge for the service we provide. The lights 

are just tools in a box.” 

On receiving this honor: “We feel awesome, 

especially Brian and [lighting department’s] 

Brandon Ferebeer. They took ownership 

of the lighting department and their 

name is on everything that leaves the shop.” 

24 



Headline 

Deck 

Regional Slants 

2009 

HOMETOWN HERO 

AWARDS 

MIDWEST REGION 

Theatrical Media Services president Tim Kohlmeyer, left, 

and co-founder Mark Huber. 

Theatrical Media Services 

Omaha, Neb. 

Theatrical Media Services (TMS) 

likes to tell clients that there is no 

limit to what they can do. Their extensive 

resume, which includes working 

in everything from theatres to rodeo 

halls, stadiums to fairgrounds, certainly 

makes the case. “We just do a 

little of everything,” says Tim Kohlmeyer, 

president. “Lots of fair and festivals, but 

also we’re touring with Bob Dylan and Dave 

Matthews. We also do a lot of theatrical events, 

including a lot of musical productions.” Since 

Omaha is home to several big companies, they 

do plenty of corporate events. They recently 

handled Mutual of Omaha’s 100th Anniversary 

celebration, for example. 

Kohlmeyer and Mark Huber founded 

TMS in 1983. Like so many others, they 

started in a garage and the early work was 

primarily for local bands. An early breakthrough 

was getting Harry Connick Jr. 

when his star was rising. “Every show has 

lead to another show,” he says of the company’s 

growth. “You make a new contact 

and it leads to something else. We always 

strive to do the best we can. Our philosophy 

is to do 110 percent and no one can 

ask for more than that. In turn, that leads 

to more work.” 

TMS has around 50 people on its payroll 

and works out of a 30,000 square-foot 

facility. They have a rental department 

and a sales department, both of which 

have recently done well, Kohlmeyer says. 

“And we’re doing more installation work 

now. That’s really taken off for us as well.” 

Recent highlights include working all the 

tents and six of the smaller stages at the 

Bonnaroo Festival. 

This is a return to the winner circle for 

TMS, who has received previous Parnelli 

nominations for their work with Dave Matthews 

and John Mayer. “If we’re successful, 

it’s because of our employees,” Kohlmeyer 

says. “This honor is about what they’ve 

done, not what me or Mark has done. Otherwise, 

the key is simply doing what you 

say you’re going to do. Keep your word.” 

SOUTHWEST REGION 

J. Robert “Bob” Harmon, president/CEO, 

Eggshell Lighting Company. 

Eggshell Lighting Company, Inc. 

Honolulu, Hawaii 

You can’t get more southwest than Hawaii!” 

laughs J. Robert “Bob” Harmon, 

“ “ 

president/CEO of Eggshell Lighting Company. 

For 35 years, Eggshell has been 

providing high quality lighting on the 

Hawaiian Islands and Guam. Lighting 

directors have turned to them for gear, 

as have event planners needing their full 

range of services from landscape to I-Mag 

stage/studio lights. Eggshell also does television, 

sales and repair work. 

“We do just about everything, including 

conventions, exhibits, fashion shows, concerts 

and more,” Harmon says. “We have many local, 

national and international clients who turn to us 

again and again.” 

Eggshell began in 1974 when Harmon was 

only 16. He was a lighting designer who started 

bringing equipment from the mainland to the 

island and began renting to others. From the 

beginning he turned the state’s disadvantage to 

an advantage for him. “Because we’re so remote, 

people can’t bring trucks full of their own gear 

here, so we grew because we were able to offer 

a lot of equipment, which appealed to the top 

named artists and clients.” Their list of clients over 

the years include: Tina Turner, U2, the Who, Miss 

America Pageant, Ray Charles, IBM, Microsoft 

and Oracle. Most recently they’ve worked with 

Gloria Estefan and Sheryl Crow. 

Harmon has had to deal with designers 

who speak different languages, which he’s embraced. 

“There’s a language barrier sometimes, 

so you especially want to be able to provide 

the gear that makes them comfortable.” He’s 

learned to be culturally sensitive too, citing 

the Japanese tradition of the proper way to 

exchange business cards as just one example. 

“For them, what’s on the business card is who 

they are at that point in their life. It makes sense 

to present it right side up, study it and properly 

acknowledge it.” Consequently, he says that he’s 

been able to cultivate Asian and European influences 

and has broadened his creative palette 

accordingly. “Every major LD has come through 

Hawaii at some point, and I’ve gotten to work 

with all of the great ones,” he says. “That’s been a 

huge learning experience.” 

Eggshell typically has around eight employees, 

calling in as many as an addition 30 for big 

jobs. 

“I am humbled to receive this honor,” he 

says. “It’s validation of the company and the 

good work we do. I’m deeply honored.” 

NORTHWEST REGION 

Hollywood Lighting Services LD Tony Bove helped 

light Microsoft’s big bang for Bing. 

Hollywood Lighting Services 

Portland, Ore. & Seattle, Wash. 

Hollywood Lighting Services is returning to 

the winner circle once again. 

“We really like the Hometown Hero 

award because it feels right to us,” says 

Gavin D’Avanther, creative director. “It’s 

the kind of reputation we work for. We 

want to be that company that if you go 

to the Northwest for an event, we’re the 

ones you call. We take pride in being 

part of the community.” 

Founded in 1948, the company has 

gone through several owners over the decades. 

Today the president is Dwayne Thomas 

and the company boasts a 9,200 square-foot 

showroom and warehouse. Thomas is a musician 

who transitioned to lighting and has been 

running the company since 2005. “It comes 

down to creative design,” he says. “We believe 

great lighting is not just about gear, but the 

people behind it. I like say we have a pretty 

darn ingenious design staff. Not to say we’re 

just about big. If you’re only required to hang 

two PARs, hang them right. We take it all seriously.” 

They have a long, healthy relationship with 

many of the region’s clients, including Boeing, 

Macy’s, Nordstrom and Adidas, to name a few. 

D’Avanther, who has been with Hollywood 

since 1995, says picking the biggest project 

in the Seattle office is easy — it’s the one that 

could practically be seen from space. Microsoft 

wanted to launch its Bing search engine in a 

big way, so they mapped out the Bing logo 

with some 390 individual LED fixtures. “Literally 

the big Bing logo pointed up a beam of 

light at a helicopter. It was cool because not 

only did it allow us to use the latest LED technology, 

but we worked with other technology 

as well, including technology from the world 

of surveying.” 

High on the Portland operation’s fun meter 

this year was the movie premiere for Tim 

Burton’s Coraline. “We handled the event at 

the theatre and also the party that was held at 

a different venue,” she says. “It involved a lot of 

custom designed gobos of the Coraline logo.” 

They continue to handle all the concerts at 

the Spirit Mountain Casino and the Rose City 

Roller Derby is one of their pet projects as well. 

This is in addition to the Portland Trailblazers 

and area ballet and operas. 

“We are thrilled to get recognized by a Parnelli 

nomination for a third time,” Thomas says. 

“We thank our fans and great clients for their 

support and votes.” 

Editor’s Note: PLSN learned shortly before 

presstime that Hollywood Lighting Services and 

Dwayne Thomas and Gavin D’Avanther have 

parted ways. Since the company’s efforts as a 

whole have been recognized by PLSN readers, it 

will remain on the ballot as the Northwest contender 

for the Parnelli Hometown Hero award. 

26 



SHOW REPORT 

By RichardCadena 

Cadena 

Where’s the Whiz? Where’s the Bang? 

If you went to PLASA 2009 at Earl’s Court 

in London looking for that whiz-banghallelujah 

got-to-have-it-life-changing 

product on the show floor and you didn’t 

find it, maybe you aren’t looking hard 

enough. If the Next Big Thing (NBT) didn’t 

seem to materialize, it’s probably because 

the last NBT — LEDs, media servers and 

networking — are still unfolding before 

our very eyes. 

To be sure, there were lots and lots of 

very cool new products at PLASA this year 

in every category of the industry. There 

was a plethora of LED color mixing wash 

fixtures, including those from Martin (MAC 

301, MAC 401), JB Lighting (A7), GLP (Impression 

120 RZ Zoom, Volkslicht), iPix (BB1, 

BB7), Studio Due, Chroma-Q Color Block 2 

and Color Force 72 and many more. One 

of the new categories that is filling up fast 

are the competitors to the Color Kinetics 

ColorReach, including the PixelRange Sky- 

Line, the Robe CitySkape (that’s not a typo 

— it’s spelled with a “k”) and CitySource 96 

and the Griven PowerShine D. Among the 

most unique LED products is the Coemar 

Stage Lite LED, which is a two-cell cyc light 

with three automated tilting LED 

bars per cell (you can 

focus the light 

narrowly 

or spread it wide, depending on 

your needs) and the DTS XR300 Beam, a 

continuously rotating pan and tilt automated 

luminaire. Also very unique is the 

Vari-Lite VLX, a 630-watt LED color wash 

moving yoke fixture, although GLP is working 

a similar version, the Meisterstuck, and 

showed a prototype of it. 

Several new automated lights made 

their debut, including Robe’s Robin Plasma 

Wash (which uses plasma lamp technology), 

ColorBeam 700, Robin 300E Beam, 

Spot and Wash and a new ColorSpot 1200E 

AT. Clay Paky has a new range of Alpha 

1500 fixtures including a Profile, Spot HPE, 

Wash, Beam and Wash LT, and Vari-Lite 

showed new versions of the VL 500 and VL 

1000, both with the new Philips CDM300 

ceramic discharge lamp. Martin demonstrated 

the MAC 250 Beam with its pencil 

beams while Novalight showed a new 

Nova Flower. This list is certainly not inclusive, 

as many more automated lights were 

seen around the show floor. 

On the control side, MA Lighting was 

showing the now-shipping version of the 

grandMA2, while Martin was very busy 

demonstrating their five Maxxyz modules, 

which can be arranged in custom configurations. 

Avolites had two new console offerings: 

the Tiger Touch, which is comparable 

to the Pearl 2004, except it has an 

integrated touch screen, and 

the Expert Touch 

W i n g , 

which adds a touch screen interface to 

the Pearl Expert. ETC showed the Element 

console, which is more of an entry-level 

console for the theatrical sector, and they 

introduced new software versions for the 

Conga and Eos consoles. In Hall 2 there 

was a buzz around the LSC Clarity console. 

It has a well-designed GUI and lots of features. 

There is a PC and a Mac version and 

two optional wings: a small wing and a big 

wing. The software includes a pixel mapper 

and integrates media servers through 

CITP. Compulite showed their entire range 

of consoles including the new Violet and 

Ultra Violet, both of which have RDM capabilities. 

And speaking of RDM, the RDM Pavilion 

has come a long way since last LDI. Peter 

Willis of Howard Eaton shepherded the 

interconnection of various Remote Device 

Management tools, controllers, splitters 

and devices that discover, configure and 

monitor lights, dimmers and scrollers over 

wired and wireless networks, including 

products from Doug Fleenor Design, Pathway 

Connectivity, Robe, Enttec, Artistic 

Licence, Goddard Design, Howard Eaton 

Lighting, Luminex LCE, ELC, LSC, City Theatrical, 

Zero 88, LED Team, iPix, Wybron, 

City Theatrical, Barco/High End Systems, 

PR Lighting, Martin, QMaxz, CDS Advanced 

Technology, Lumen Radio, LEDTeam, 

Novalight, Tempest Lighting, LDR, Ocean 

Optics and ETC. Paul McMaster of Zero 88 

was on hand to demonstrate the RDM capabilities 

of the new Jester software. It 

can discover lights and 

automatically 

create a fixture profile for it using 

the information the fixture sends to the 

console. It then allows the console operator 

to identify the fixture by making it 

flash so you can set its DMX address from 

the console. Marcus Bengtsson of Lumen 

Radio demonstrated their wireless RDM 

transmitters and receivers, which includes 

some software to monitor the network and 

the status of the connected devices. 

Over in the Martin stand they were 

demonstrating their own implementation 

of RDM called Radar. It was developed in 

conjunction with Wybron and uses Wybron’s 

InfoGate processor along with Info- 

Store software. The Radar software is run 

on a computer and it communicates with 

RDM-enabled lighting fixtures and devices 

like scrollers through the InfoGate processor 

and an RDM splitter. The software polls 

the fixtures and if there are any status messages 

to report back to the console, then 

the operator can spot them on the display 

screen and pull them up. It also stores 

them on a remote server and keeps a record 

of the values. The system is Internetenabled, 

and you can monitor systems the 

world over. Martin is working on writing 

code that will enable users to update existing 

fixtures and all of their new fixtures 

will come with RDM capabilities. 

After what seemed like a millennium 

of delay, it appears as if RDM is finally 

catching on. And when it really takes hold, 

watch for the whiz that will soon follow 

the bang. 

For more photos and info, go to www. 

psln.com/PLASA2009. 



Vari-Lite’s new VLX in a 

translucent housing for 

display. 

Coemar displayed their latest offerings including the Infinity Spot, Wash 

and ACL fixtures. 

The ETC stand. 

Compulite launched the new Violet and Ultra Violet consoles. 

The stand for AC Entertainment Technology, parent company to AC Lighting 

in North America. 

Clay Paky introduced an entire range of Alpha 1500 and 700 

fixtures. 

The MDG Fog stand at Earls Court 2. The PRG stand can be seen in the 

background. 

City Theatrical was showing the new Lightwright 5 software. 

Milos Structural Systems showed a new crowd barrier system, among 

other aluminum structures. 

Lycian’s stand between Earls Court 1 and 2. The Martin stand was among the busiest at the show. The PixelRange stand. Their new SkyLine is on top of the column of 

PixelLines. 


29

SHOW LD-AT-LARGE REPORT 

Headline 

Deck 

PROJECTION 

PROJECTION 

LIGHTS & STAGING 

LIGHTS & 

NEWS 

STAGING NEWS 

By NookSchoenfeld 

Apollo Design Technology displaying their range of products. 

The Philips stand included displays of their new FastFit lamps in addition to 

displays from Color Kinetics, Vari-Lite and Strand. 

Swisson showed, among other products, their new XSD-D Series Satellite 

Sine Wave Dimmer. 

The always-busy Robe stand carried a large number of new products. 

On the DTS stand was the new XR300 Beam with continuous rotation on 

pan and tilt. 

The Elation stand at the entrance to Earls Court 1. 

COMING NEXT 

MONTH... 

The Studio Due stand was glowing with LED light. 

TK 

TK 

TK 

TK 

TK 

TK 

The JB Lighting stand with the JBLED A7 Zoom, which is distributed in the 

U.S. by Creative Stage Lighting. 

Robert Juliat followspots, including the Cyrano (L) and Lancelot in the 

White Light zone. 

Prolyte at PLASA. 

Pulsar occupying their usual location at the front of the exhibition hall. 

Brothers Arturo (L) and Guillermo Cabada of Mega-Lite with a customer. 

30 30PLSN OCTOBER 2009


SHOW LD-AT-LARGE REPORT 

Headline 

Deck 

PROJECTION 

PROJECTION 

LIGHTS & STAGING 

LIGHTS & 

NEWS 

STAGING NEWS 


MA Lighting officially launched the grandMA2. Although they 

showed it at PLASA last year, this year they are shipping it. 

SGM on the RCF stand. The lighting company was recently purchased by the 

audio company. 

The RDM Pavilion with a variety of RDM-enabled products. 

Brothers Clive and Graham 

Forrester on the All Access 

Staging & Productions stand. 

All Access opened in London 

last year. 

Chauvet’s UK distributor and their stand at PLASA. 

COMING NEXT 

MONTH... 

TK 

TK 

TK 

TK 

TK 

TK 

The Rosco Stand. 


32 32PLSN OCTOBER 2009 

Strong Lighting exhibited in the shadow of the ESTA stand.


FEATURE 

Big Wheels Keep on Turning 

Tours are Rollin’ Through Recession 

By KevinM.Mitchell 

In an economic downturn, maybe “flat” 

should be considered the new “up.” 

Other industries are getting gutted 

in the current economic climate, but 

transportation industry leaders in the 

touring industry are grateful for “business 

as usual,” which remains (mostly) 

good. The caveat is that customers want 

better pricing. And some companies 

outside of the concert/touring business 

David Kiely, Roadshow Services 

“I’ve noticed 

there is severe 

pressure 

to push the 

rates downward,” 

says 

R o a d s h o w 

president David 

Kiely. 

“We’re seeing 

more general 

freight carriers entering the marketplace, 

and they are taking market share.” 

It’s understandable, he adds, as production 

companies are also under pressure 

to lower costs. Since the automobile industry 

slowed way down, there are simply 

more empty trucks available. But it 

takes more than an empty 18-wheeler to 

move tours around the country. 

“Traditionally this isn’t their market, 

and so they are going to provide a different 

level of service. But it will bounce 

back — water keeps its own levels. Quality 

people will demand what the professionals 

can provide.” 

He then notes what industry veteran 

Steve Maples told him years ago: Every 

year somebody thinks they want to be in 

the rock ‘n’ roll business, and they come 

in fast and leave just as quickly when 

they realize they can’t make money. In 

their wake, they leave a little turbulence 

in the marketplace. 

Transportation industry leaders in the 

touring industry are grateful for business 

as usual, which remains (mostly) good. 

who happen to have some big trucks are 

trying to elbow into the market. And if 

the recorded music industry continues 

to struggle, its decline is making touring 

a more important source of income 

for artists, and that’s good for industry 

transportation professionals. 

“People don’t understand that we 

make it look easy, but there’s a lot of 

planning. It’s like choreographing ballet.” 

Kiely’s analogy to the pricing dance 

is the airline industry: first-class customers 

aren’t as price sensitive. “They want 

to get on when they want, they want 

their cocktail, and they don’t want to 

even hear any excuse regarding their 

luggage. For these people you jump 

through the hoops.” 

“Business class” clients are more costconscious. 

“Then there is coach, and if 

there are ‘seats’ — empty trucks — you 

try to accommodate them.” 

Long-time clients continue to stay 

loyal, he says, though you have to earn 

it every day. Keeping the fleet up to date 

and treating clients well is key, because 

the first time you don’t, the client turns 

to one of the other three guys trying to 

get their business. “We have tough competitors, 

so we can’t give our clients a 

reason to change.” 

Kiely says some festival cancellations 

surprised him, though the premium acts 

continue to sell, come boom or bust. 

Taking care of them was more challenging 

this summer. Everybody wants more 

fuel-efficient, greener trucks, but selling 

the older ones has been tougher 

because credit in continued on page 34 



33

FEATURE 


Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info 


general has been tougher to get. But he 

enjoyed the summer. 

“I’m happy to see Springsteen out,” 

he says. “Our top clients are Springsteen, 

Billy Joel and Jimmy Buffett. They constantly 

tour and they are first class in everything 

they do. Some of them have the 

same drivers for 20 years. Roadshow drivers 

are different because they get involved. 

It’s almost like having their own butler.” 

He’s also picked up some new acts, including 

Alice in Chains and Kings of Leon. 

Robin Shaw, Upstaging Inc. 

“Thank God it’s 

been a fabulous 

summer 

for us,” exclaims 

Robin 

Shaw, vice 

president of 

Upstaging Inc. 

“ S u m m e r s 

have been 

good the last 

five years, in part because of the demise of 

the recording industry. As everybody knows, 

bands have to tour more. Those bands have 

increasingly turned to us for production services.” 

Shaw acknowledges the industry-wide 

challenge of price concessions, but reframes 

the issue as business-as-usual. “We’ve always 

been a company that works for our clients 

and with their budgets. This year is not different 

from others in that regard. We’re firm 

on our goal: quality service at a good value.” 

While she admits that things are “more 

intense,” their handling of the subject is not. 

“We’re very successful at working things 

out. We provide a very specialized service. 

There’s a lot of risk associated with that, yet 

we’ve always been a company that provides 

the best service at the best possible price. 

This year is no different.” 

Upstaging has successfully hung onto 

its clients, and Shaw reports that the vast 

majority continue to stay loyal. Upstaging 

has also added up-and-coming acts to its 

roster. 

Asked if the live entertainment industry 

was recession-proof, the answer was yes 

and no. People still want entertainment, 

but the times call for artists to charge a 

little less. This causes everyone to be more 

careful about spending money. 

Other organizations necessarily reevaluate 

the way they do business in particularly 

trying times. “We’re a big company, and 

we’re always concerned with everything 

from our basic finances to how we can be 

more environmentally friendly.” 

Shaw smiles and shifts when asked for 

highlights, which is akin to asking which 

child is most beautiful. Finally she apologizes 

and admits she would be hard pressed 

to say, but adds, “We’re just grateful to work 

with all the amazing bands and crews out 

there we’re fortunate to partner with.” 

Jim Bodenheimer, Ego Trips 

“July and August 

was sold 

out — all of 

us were. If we 

weren’t, we’d 

all be in trouble.” 

The owner 

of Ego Trips, 

Jim Bodenheimer, 

confirms 

that the summer “appeared to be 

normal.” The big tours were still big, the 

mediums were mostly still there … but 

the smaller tours have been affected by 

the economic downturn. 

“What is different is the medium and 

smaller tours were not going to ‘C’ markets 

as readily as they would in a typical summer,” 

he says. 

Some of the up-and-coming bands 

were having shorter tours and are certainly 

more price sensitive. Some bands that had 

two trucks last year whittled it down to one; 

those that had one cut back to a bus and a 

trailer. “It’s trickling from the top down.” 

But he notes that, despite the fact that 

there was more competition for tours, there 

were also more tours. 

Bodenheimer sees newer bands relying 

more on house rigs and local crew on the 

road and maybe just carrying the lighting 

console as opposed to the whole system. 

Bands that insisted on their own gear in 

summers past are now more readily agreeing 

to use the in-house gear in that casino 

or shed. 

“The other thing that is happening is 

that, from the blank page, they are designing 

their tours in a manner that considers 

the cost of everything, which in this environment 

is logical. It’s the result of the 

current world economic situation.” Still, he 

expresses his gratitude for the “amazing 

loyalty” from their roster of clients. 

Even so, in addition to more competition, 

there are noticeable gaps between 

the seasons. Where in years prior it was 

all seamless, now there’s some downtime 

— part of the aformentioned trend of acts 

not making it to “C” markets as frequently. 

“We’ve been more aggressive in getting 

new clients as those gaps come up,” 

Bodenheimer says. “It’s just a harder year 

in general. Clients want to pay less when 

things cost more. It’s not a good combination.” 

Still, he’s pleased with a roster of clients 

that includes Elton John, Jackson Browne, 

Steely Dan, Moody Blues, Bonnie Raitt and 

the Pretenders. 

Loren Haas, Stage Call 

“The concert 

touring 

business 

has been 

great,” confirms 

Stage 

Call president 

and 

CEO Loren 

Haas. “The 



Applied Electronics 

TM6-600 

Chauvet DMX-4 dimmer/ 

relay pack 

AC Power Distribution 

RPD Series, distributed 

by TMB 


Portable Dimmers 

Only a dimmer tech could come up with 

a term of endearment that we know as 

“dimmer beach.” It conjures images of 

lounge chairs, exotic drinks, sand, surf and bikinis. 

In reality, dimmer beach is not for the faint 

of heart. It’s typically very loud, hot, and cable 

is strewn about like vines in the Amazon. And if 

anything goes wrong, it’s typically the first location 

to be yelled at through the comm system. 

The term clearly overstates the reality. 

But with the latest dimmer technology, at 

least, the trouble calls come fewer and farther 

between. State-of-the-art dimming is generally 

very reliable, easy to troubleshoot and service, 

and it comes packaged for quick load-in and 

load-out. The life of a dimmer tech is not so bad 

after all. 

Features like modular components, LED 

indicators and overload protection keep the 

dimmer techs of the world comfy and much 

more settled at dimmer beach. And some dimmers 

also have remote sensing so the console 

operator is alerted should any problems arise. 

In fact, ETC recently added RDM capabilities in 

their new SmartBar 2 dimmer bars. Not only will 

it allow the operator to monitor the status of the 

dimmer but it will also allow them to change 

the DMX address. Dimmer techs never had it so 

good. 

To learn more about the latest on portable 

BUYERS GUIDE 

By RichardCadena 

dimmers, turn the page and check out the PLSN 

Buyers Guide on portable dimming. It lists all 

the specs for several portable dimmers including 

the rise time, the efficiency and more. The 

rise time is a measure of how much the dimmer 

limits the overshoot current when the switch 

turns on. A high rise time is better than a low rise 

time because it protects the components from 

the effects of large currents and rapid changes 

in temperature. The efficiency is a measure of 

how much energy is lost to heat compared to 

how much total energy is used. 

After you look over the chart, fix yourself an 

exotic drink, put on your flip-flops and head out 

to dimmer beach for some real fun. 

Elation Cyber Pak 

Lex Products Slim Dimmer 

Strand Lighting 

Propack 

Leprecon 

MX-2400 

ETC SmartPack products 

Lightronics AS-42 

Swisson XSD-D4 


Techni-Lux PD-PackPro6 

Leviton D4DMX

BUYERS GUIDE 

Manufacturers Model Number of Channels Rise Time (µsecs) Over-current Protection Full Load Efficiency 

Applied Electronics 

www.appliednn.com 

Chauvet 

www.chauvetlighting.com 

Elation 

www.elationlighting.com 

ETC (Electronic Theatre 

Controls, Inc.) 

www.etcconnect.com 

TM4-1200 (4) 1200W duplex outlets 200 10A fuse per channel Full load rated 

TM6-600 (6) 600W single outlets 150 5A fuse per channel Full load rated 

DMX-4 4 30 Fuse 97% 

PRO-D6 6 20 Circuit breaker 95% 

DP-640B 6 56 20A 98.60% 

Cyber Pak 4 72 6A 98.45% 

Sensor+ Portable Packs and Touring 

Racks 

SmartPack Portable and Touring 

2-96 circuits 350, 500, 800 Fully rated magnetic breakers Dependant upon rise time 

6-12 per pack;2/4 pack 

racks 

200 Fully rated magnetic breakers Dependant upon rise time 

SmartBar 2 and SmartModule 2 2-6 circuits Fully rated magnetic breakers Dependant upon rise time 

VX Series 12 400 Yes, w/LED indicator N/A 

MX Series 12 350 Yes, w/LED indicator N/A 

Leprecon 

www.leprecon.com 

ULD-340 Series 4 310 Yes, w/LED error message N/A 

ULD-360 Series 6 310 Yes, w/LED error message N/A 

D4DMX 4 - Breaker N/A 

ND4600 4 160 Fuse N/A 

Leviton 

www.nsicorp.com 

DDS5600 4 160 Fuse N/A 

DDS6000 4 400 Fuse N/A 

DDS6000+ 4 400 Fuse N/A 

Slim Dimmer, LDT1.8K 1x1.8kW 0 Push to reset breaker N/A 

Lex Products 

www.lexproducts.com 

Anaconda 

4x600W, 4x1.2kW, 

6x800W, 6x1.2kW 

350 Push to reset breaker N/A 

DX Dimmer Pack 

12x1.4kW, 6x2.4kW, 

3x6.0kW 

450 Magnetic circuit breakers N/A 

XC Series 

6Ch x 1200W; 4Ch x 

1200W; 4Ch x 600W 

350 

10A fuses; 10A fuses; 5A fuses 

(respectively) 

97% 

Lightronics 

www.lightronics.com 

AS Series 

6Ch x 1200W; 4Ch x 

1200W; 4Ch x 600W 

350; 350; 150 

10A breakers/10A fuses; 10A 

breakers/10A fuses; 5A fuses 

97% 

Strand Lighting 

www.strandlighting.com 

SP Series 4Ch x 600W 150 10A fuses 97% 

S21 6 Dimmer Strip 6 800 Yes - auto shutdown 98% 

LightPack Single Dimmer 1 800 Yes - auto shutdown 98% 

Pro Pack 12 350 Fully magnetic breakers 97% 

Swisson 

www.swisson.com 

XSD-D Series Satillite Sine Wave Dimmer 

4x2.5kW, 2x5kW, 

1x12kW=@240V; US models 

coming soon 

Not applicable (sine 

wave technology) 

Electronic protection approx 97% 

Techni-Lux 

www.techni-lux.com 

PD-PackPro6 6 400 Resettable circuit breakers (2) N/A 

ProPower RPD Series Power Distro w/ 

Optional Dimming 

6 to 60 

Depends on dimmers 

used 

10A and/or 20A 


used 

TMB (by AC Power Distribution, Inc.) 

www.tmb.com 

ProPower CE RMD Series Power Distro 

w/Optional Dimming 

6 to 60 


used 



used 

ProPower CE HPS Hot Patch Power 

Distro w/Dimming 

24 or 48 


used 



used 



Compliance Features Retail Price Comments 

UL listed 

UL listed 

Edison, stagepin or twist-lock input; Edison, stagepin or 19-pin outlets; DMX in/out, LED display, on-board 

scene storage, independent dim/non-dim per channel; 6 lbs 

Edison, stagepin or twist-lock input; Edison, stagepin or 19-pin outlets; DMX in/out, LED display, on-board 

scene storage, independent dim/non-dim per channel; 6 lbs 

$565-$620 

$595-$620 

CE 4-channel dimmer/relay pack, individually addressable channels. $119.99 

CE 6-channel dimmer/switch, selectable dimmer curves, individually addressable channels. $279.99 

UL listed 6 channel hybrid, dim/switch, pack with dual 20A Edison sockets per channel. $599.95 

UL listed 4 channel hybrid, dim/switch, pack with dual Edison sockets and 5A load capacity per channel. $259.95 

2 year warranty; manufactured in USA; custom 

designs available. 

2 year warranty; manufactured in USA; custom 

designs available. 

UL, cUL 

Removable modules for dim/relay/constant; patch bay and range of connector options; twice the control 

with dimmer doubling; Ethernet native, Net3, ACN, sACN, 16-bit fade mode. 

N/A 

UL, cUL Synchronization of presets and sequence; built-in curves; manual control; choice of output connectors. N/A 

UL, cUL 

UL 

UL 

ETL 

ETL 

“Easy Focus” integrated bushing for rigging fixtures; DMX/RDM compatible; manual control; 

built-in curves; choice of output connectors. 

1200/2400W per CH w/ duplex Edison, dual stagepin, or 19-pin; hot patch; non-dim assignable; indicators 

incl. output, no load, power (XYZ), DMX signal & match; test switches; 

magnetic breakers & removable front panel. 

1200/2400W per CH w/ duplex Edison, dual stagepin, or 19-pin; hot patch; indicators include output, power 

(XYZ) & DMX signal & match; test switches; magnetic breakers & removable front panel. 

1800W total power, single 15A power cord/breaker; 3600W total pack power, 2 x 15A power cords/breakers; 

stagepin, duplex or Twistlock; illuminated magnetic breakers; linear curve, non-dim, fixed intensity or fluorescent; 

encapsulatad chokes, 25A SSRs per CH. 

1800W total power, single 15A power cord/breaker; 3600W total power, 2 x 15A power cords/breakers; 

stagepin, duplex, Twistlock or 19-pin; illuminated magnetic breakers; linear curve, non-dim, fixed intensity or 

fluorescent outputs; encapsulatad chokes, 25A SSRs per CH. 

N/A 4x1200W, 2400W max; individual channel control; NSI MPX & DMX input; relay or dimmer output; built in chases. $248.40 

N/A 4x600, 2400W max; NSI MPX input. $409.32 

N/A 

$4,000 

$3,600 

$795 

$870 

Single or 3-phase switchable; 5-wire #2 camloc 

input; front/rear rack mount kit incl.; option for 

handle hardware; 2 yr warranty; 7”x19”X17” 

Single or 3-phase switchable; 5-wire #2 camloc 

inputs; front/rear rack mount kit incl.; option for 

handle hardware; 2 yr warranty; 7”x19”x17” 

Optional bracket for horiz mounting; wireless 

DMX available; 2 yr warranty; 16”x6”x4” 

Option for 3600W 2 x 20A L-5/20 power cords & 

breakers w/ stagepin or duplex load connectors. 

Optional bracket available for horizontal mounting. 

Wireless DMX (W-DMX) models available. Two year 

warranty. 16” x 6” x 4” 

UL/cUL 4x600W, 2400W max; individual channel control; NSI MPX & DMX input; relay or dimmer output. $668.52 



cULus Single basic dimmer w/ onboard fader $385 

Suitable for portable lighting kits, retail displays, 

anywhere basic dimming is required 

cULus DMX512 & local control, addressable,non-dim function, variety of connector options $872-1,480 Rugged dimmers in a small package 

cULus 

N/A 

n/a; UL-508; 

UL-508 

Better than average filtering, DMX512, local control, addressable, 100 snapshot memories, non-dim function, 

lamp pre-heat function, neutral fault protection 

Optional built-in wireless DMX; dimmer curve selection; architectural interface; 5 year warranty. 

8 built-in chases; relay mode switchable; 5 year warranty. 

$1,990-$2,444 2RU rack mountable with filtering and features 

$775 

$665 

$500 

$925 - $699; 

$739 - $555; 

$420 - $370 

Softpatchable; channel limiting; response curve 

selection; chase pattern selection incl. rate, fade 

and brightness. 

AS-62D & AS-42D are multi protocol accepting 

LMX-128 & DMX-512. 

N/A 1650W max total pack; 16 built-in chase modes; 2 year warranty. $185 3-pin DMX-512; dual Edison connectors per channel. 

UL, cUL IGBT dimming dimmer strip for silent operation with no fan noise and 6 X1.2kW dimmers. $2,570 

UL, cUL IGBT dimming for silent operation with no fan noise. $408 

ETL, cETL Rack mount dimmer pack with 12 X2.4kW dimmers. $2,025 

CE 

Can be set up to be a dimmer, switch, or fixed stabilized voltage source; extremely quiet; uplink\passthrough 

option for power so multiple XSD-D’s can be daisy-chained; includes Power Manager for safe operation 

when working on the limit of the mains supply by limiting the total power used. 

Approx 2,000 

Euros 

CE 

Dimmer curve selection for each channel - square, switch, or linear via a digital display; each channel can be 

set as either a dimmer or on/off function and set to any DMX address; individual switch, 

circuit breaker and plug per input line. 

$384 

10A per channel output on dual Edisons; 20A 

per line; 40A max w/ 2 Edison input circuits. 

UL 

Various output connectors including 19-pin, Edison, Twistlock & stagepin. 

Varies per 

configuration 

Custom configurable including ETC SmartPack 

Dimmer Packs - 12x10A or 6x20A, Edison, stagepin, 

PowerCon, or 19-pin outputs. 

Custom configurable including ETC SmartPack 

Dimmer Packs or other rackmount dimmers. 

Optional dimming. Aluminum panels. Flight 

case, casters optional. 

CE 

Various output connectors including 19-pin, 13A British, Schuko, and CEEform. 

Varies per 

configuration 

CE 

24-way and 48-way dimming, power or mix configuration patchable to KC or Socapex 19-pin via Wieland 

patch leads. 

Varies per 

configuration 


37

FEATURE 


2009 Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award Winner 

By KevinM. Mitchell 

38 PLSN OCTOBER 2009 

Jake made a name for himself, literally and figuratively. Above, 

the Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto SARS benefit in 2003. 

Jake, with daughter Melissa, flanked by U2’s Adam Clayton, Bono, The Edge and Larry Mullen, Jr. 

From AC/DC to U2, Berlin to Yes, Janet 

Jackson to Tina Turner, Cher to Madonna, 

Barney to Walking with Dinosaurs, Bob the 

Builder to the Wiggles, Metallica to the Rolling 

Stones — tour manager Jake Berry has earned 

a backstage pass to some of the most successful 

and biggest acts in the business and to rock ‘n’ roll 

history itself. 

What started with a beer with a keyboardist 

decades ago has evolved into one of the most 

enviable and fascinating careers in live event 

production, one worthy of the industry’s highest 

honor, the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award, 

which will be bestowed on Berry Nov. 20 at a gala 

awards ceremony in Orlando, Fla. 

“He combines all those attributes that are so 

important in a production manager — logistical 

ability, management, a lightning sharp financial 

brain, the ability to tread carefully through a political 

minefield and a view of the big picture,” declares 

award-winning lighting designer Patrick 

Woodroffe. “But most of all he has courage.” 

“There’s a county in the southwest of England 

called Devonshire,” says Yes keyboardist 

Rick Wakeman. “It is famous for being a holiday 

destination and having pretty thatched cottages, 

thousands of sheep, an accent few people 

can understand and Jake Berry! He is a credit to 

the industry and a credit to all who have had the 

pleasure of knowing him, including me. He is one 

very special guy. 

“After a few years working with me he moved 

on to AC/DC — that is, the band, not the lifestyle 

choice. As the years rolled by, Jake continued 

to climb the ladder, and no one could be more 

proud of what he achieved than me.” 

Berry’s resourcefulness is legendary. Fellow 

tour/production manager Ian Jeffrey tells of an 

AC/DC gig that was scheduled at an outdoor 

arena in Phoenix, but torrential rains had created 

a swimming pool in front of the stage. There was 

talk of canceling the gig. Instead, Berry strapped 

down all the equipment on stage and hired a helicopter. 

In logic that exists only in Berry’s mind, 

the idea was the helicopter would hover close to 

the ground and the wind it created would push 

the water away. It worked; the gig went on. 

“He was very noisy and certainly mad, which 

helps in this business,” recalls acclaimed scenic 

designer Mark Fisher. “He’s somebody who 

people will follow through conditions of great 

difficulty as well as in the good times. And he 

would never ask anyone to do anything that he 

wouldn’t do himself, even today.” 

“Jake has shown the industry how to 

take mammoth productions on the road without 

artistic compromise and still make money,” 

says former Parnelli winner and scenic designer 

Michael Tait, who also worked with Berry. “He has 

the ability to edit a production to its essentials, 

yet maintain that tenuous balance of pleasing 

artist, management and designer. He attracts 

dedicated and talented road crews who are 

fiercely loyal and will follow him anywhere.” 

A Beer and a Career 

plsn 

Steven “Jake” Berry was born in the small village 

of Exeter, Devon, in the U.K., along with his 

twin brother, Trevor, in 1953. At age 12 the brothers 

formed a rock group with Jake on drums. “We 

called ourselves the Scandal because we thought 

it was scandalous that people would pay money 

to hear us,” he laughs. His career as a musician 

was aborted when he sold his Sonor drum set 

when he was 18. 

Trevor turned his attention to thatching 

roofs and Jake worked as a truck driver, among 

other vocations. Trevor happened to be thatching 

the country home of one Rick Wakeman, 

who resided in the quiet hills of Devon. “One day 

I finished my work early and my mother asked if 

I could take some things my brother had forgotten 

to take with him on a job,” Berry says. Upon 

delivery, Berry struck up a conversation with the 

rock star and the two decided to share a pint at 

a nearby pub. Both men recall it leading to an 

afternoon of drinking, followed by an evening of 

drinking, followed by a job. 

“Out of the blue, Rick told me he was doing 

this show at Wembley [Arena in London] and 

asked if I wanted to come help,” Berry recalls. 

“Then there I was, pushing cases.” 

“I first met Jake in 1974 when I moved to Devon 

to try to cut back on my drinking. Jake was a 

tremendous help to me and actually played an 

enormous part in increasing my alcoholic intake 

by about 300 percent,” jokes Wakeman. “In 1975 

he came to London with me to help with my King 

Arthur shows. Jake then said he really wanted to 

learn everything there was about the production 

side of the music business and asked to stay on 

as part of the crew. Over the ensuing years, Jake 

literally spent every waking hour learning his 

craft. He roadied for every possible instrument 

and musician there was and even spent time 

doing things like discussing what kind of sticks 

drummers used!” 

He went to London where Wakeman had rejoined 

Yes and went on the group’s Going for the 

One tour. During this period, he met someone 

who was crucial in the development of his career: 

Ian Jeffrey (AC/DC, David Bowie, Madonna, Sting, 

among others). 

“Jake got his start with AC/DC because of 

the telling of a fib,” laughs Jeffrey. After working 

with Yes, Jeffrey was working with AC/DC as tour 

manager/FOH mixer. The band was opening for 

Black Sabbath when they started to explode in 

popularity. Suddenly they needed a production 

manager/stage manager, and he immediately 

thought Berry would be perfect, despite the fact 

that Berry’s experience in live concert touring 

was limited at the time. 

So in 1979, in a plot that could only be 

hatched in a pub after an evening of draining 

pints, it was decided that the band would be 

told that Berry had stage managed for Yes. Jeffrey’s 

faith, however, was unwavering and was 

willing to put his own reputation on the line for 

Berry. They just had to convince manager Peter 

Mench. 

AC/DC’s Highway 

plsn 

“When I got my start as AC/DC’s manager, 

I was told to hire Jake Berry as our production 

manager,” legendary rock manager Mench recalls. 

“I count that as among the smartest decisions I 

have ever made. Culminating with a couple of 

Metallica tours, Jake did an amazing job. Clearly, 

now he is at the top of his game with U2.” 

The promotion was a whirlwind experience 

for Berry. “The next thing you know I’m landing 

in Oakland, Calif., as production manager for 

the 1979 Highway to Hell tour,” Berry says. “We 

had two trucks, and I knew nothing. I was terrified, 

but there were a lot of great people on that 

tour who really helped me out.” The band grew 

to trust Jake, and his success landed him on AC/ 

DC’s payroll permanently. 

He credits Jeffrey as being a superb mentor. 

“I would listen to how he would advance a show, 

make notes and then do it myself. And he taught 

me my first important lesson, which is never appear 

like you don’t know something. Always say, 

‘I’ll get back to you on that,’” Berry laughs. 

In February 1980, the band and their fans 

were shattered by the death of singer Bon Scott 

from alcohol poisoning. In what he says was his 

lowest moment of his career, he and Jeffrey had 

the gruesome task of going back to Scott’s apartment 

and cleaning it all up. 

In 1983, while with the band in San Francisco, 

he got word his father passed away. “It was 

terrible, but the one thing that has stayed with 

me all my life is how wonderful the band was. 

Malcolm [Young] came in to see how I was and 

then told Ian, ‘You [fricking] make sure he sits in 

the front of the plane and make sure he gets a 

car and driver when he lands.’ And they sent the 

biggest bouquet of flowers, too.” 

When AC/DC was taking a break from touring, 

he went to work, albeit briefly, for Ronnie 

James Dio. 

“Dio was the only person to ever fire me,” he 

says. Berry says they were doing a show in Quebec, 

and he was trying to explain to non-English-


FEATURE 


speaking French Canadians how the complicated 

introduction with lasers needed to go when 

he was summoned to Dio’s dressing room. Feeling 

that the task at hand was more important, he 

kept working on the show. Dio didn’t see it that 

way and fired him. 

“I flew home thinking I would never work in 

this business again.” 

That fear turned out to be fallacious. Rich 

Fisher, tour manager 

of Mötley Crüe, 

would give him his 

next opportunity. 

“During the 1980s 

I worked with a 

lot of heavy metal 

bands,” he says. “We 

did crazy things — 

like playing all 50 

states with Metallica.” 

And every 

band was trying to 

top the others. “If 

Iron Maiden had 

800 PAR cans we 

had to have 850.” 

The 1990s came, and Berry continued to 

spend an enormous amount of time on some of 

the top-selling tours of the day, including Mötley 

Crüe’s Theatre of Pain, followed by Girls Girls Girls. 

“It was a very creative time,” he says and recalls 

when they had Crüe drummer Tommy Lee spinning 

around with his drums during a performance. 

“We used a forklift and hydraulics, did 

it for about $85,000, and safety concerns were 

zilch! That effect would cost over a million dollars 

today. We’d just open the curtain, push it out 

there and then pray it worked!” 

Berry also worked with Roger Davis, another 

legendary manager whom Berry refers to as the 

“King of the Divas” for his landmark work with 

Cher, Tina Turner and Janet Jackson. Berry was 

part of many of those phenomenal tours. 

You Can Get What You Want 

Keith Richards, Jake Berry and Ron Woods at Jake’s 50th birtday party 

in 2002, during the Rolling Stones’ Forty Licks tour. 

plsn 

Once when Berry had a rare open spot in his 

schedule and he called Jeffrey looking for work. 

Jeffrey said that they were trying to find a drum 

tech for Berlin. “I can do that!” Berry said. Despite 

his lack of experience in that area, Berry came 

aboard and learned quickly. Typical of Berry, he 

had a great time doing it. He also has equally 

fond memories of touring for Frankie Goes to 

Hollywood during the same period. 

In 1993, Canadian concert promoter (and 

now chairman of Live Nation) Michael Cohl 

called Berry and told him the Rolling Stones 

were looking for a new production manager for 

the Steel Wheels tour. Being a fan since he was a 

teenager, this was an opportunity to “meet the 

people you idolized as a kid.” 

“Next thing I know, I was standing in a room 

at the Four Seasons in London looking out the 

window, and then I just froze — I knew Mick 

[Jagger] had walked into the room without 

even seeing him. Suddenly I was a little kid from 

Devon again.” That meeting went well, as did 

one with drummer Charlie Watts (“the gentleman 

of Rock ‘n’ Roll”). “When I went in to meet 

Keith, he was playing pool with [tennis star] 

John McEnroe. He asked who I worked with and 

when I said AC/DC, he replied, ‘That’s my favorite 

band. I love Angus. You’re hired.’” 

For Berry it was a like jumping to the major 

leagues. “It was a whole new spectrum of touring.” 

Working on this tour and then the Voodoo 

Lounge tour allowed him to work with lighting 

designer Patrick Woodroffe. 

“There is no one more passionate, committed, 

or able than Jake Berry to lift a huge production 

up onto his shoulders and then set off on 

tour for a year,” Woodroffe explains. “Although I 

have seen him in many frightening situations, 

Scenic designer Mark Fisher calls Berry “very noisy 

and certainly mad, which helps in this business.” 

both intellectual and physical, he has never appeared 

afraid. He makes decisive decisions that 

seem to sweep everyone along in his wake.” He 

adds with a laugh: “And we do both have the 

shared experience of having being threatened 

by Keith Richards. With Jake, it involved a knife, 

and me, a gun. But we both managed to survive 

with our dignity and cojones intact!” 

Berry adds that it gave him a chance to 

Ian Jeffrey tells the tale of the 

AC/DC gig where Berry hired a 

helicopter to dry a wet stage. 

work with “the greatest set designer of all time,” 

Mark Fisher. Fisher, who since 1994 has done 

many live events with Berry, recognized that 

when Berry joined the Stones he was indeed 

“the new kid.” “It was important that we got on 

well with him because he was the new kid on 

the block,” he says. “And Jake is very good with 

dealing with stars and made himself at home 

very quickly.” 

Berry quickly analyzed the workings of the 

organization. Jagger and Watts typically provided 

the creative direction a tour would take, 

while Richards concerned himself almost exclusively 

with the sound. “You couldn’t have an 

element on the stage that would [hinder] the 

sound,” he says.” Fisher and Woodroffe would 

start the process of design and go back and 

forth with the band until they had something 

they were all excited about. 

Yet Berry got off to a rocky start. Early in 

preparing for the tour, “I remember the rehearsals 

for Voodoo Lounge, and a heavy Jumbotron 

screen fell,” Berry recalls. In notifying the band 

of the setback, word failed to get to Richards, 

and a tough confrontation ensued. “They were 

honest words,” he says. “I had just taken another 

production manager’s place and Keith wanted 

to know how he could trust me after that.” Berry 

took his lumps and went off and proved himself. 

Today there’s an original artwork by Richards 

hanging in Berry’s house which came with a 

note that states simply: “He who came through 

— Love, Keith.” 

In 2002 the 

Stones again 

summoned him 

for the Forty 

Licks tour, which 

was memorable 

for being the 

tour in which 

Berry turned 50. 

The day before 

his birthday, 

the band was 

preparing for a 

show in Munich. 

LD Patrick Woodroffe says “there’s no Berry was informed 

that Jag- 

one more passionate, committed and 

able” than Berry. 

ger wanted to 

see him in his dressing room. It was a sobering 

request, as Berry points out that if one is ever 

summoned to a rock star’s dressing room, it is 

not to have lavish praised heaped upon oneself. 

When Berry got to Jagger, he led him to 

where a party was in full swing — a party for 

Berry. He did a double take as he spotted his 

mom, sitting between Richards and Ronnie 

Wood. “It was total class,” he said. And speaking 

of class, tour manager Alan Dunn treated Berry 

and the gang by dressing in drag. 

What would happen next is an embarrassment 

of riches. A meeting with Paul McGuiness 

led to an invitation to join another of rock’s royal 

families, U2. Berry flew to Dublin, sat down with 

the band, and soon he was working on their tours. 

Berry would become an important member of 

that family, too. When health-conscious Bono 

heard he wasn’t feeling well, he demanded Berry 

be sent to the Mayo Clinic. Berry asked Bono if he 

had a choice and was firmly told no. Soon Berry 

was in Rochester, Minn., getting a long overdue, 

thorough checkup. 





42 

44 

Inside... 

Bangkok Motor 

Show 

Video World 

Video Projection Lights Up Rockestra 

Fundraising Event at Malta’s MFCC 

Dallas Cowboys Stadium Features 

Eight Temporary Video Displays 

For E/T/C London, one unusual quirk was a perfectly flat projection surface. 

VALLETTA, Malta — The president of Malta, George 

Abela, asked E/T/C London’s Ross Ashton to create a 

video projection show to accompany the island’s twohour 

Rockestra concert, a fundraising event for the 

Malta Community Chest charity. 

President Abela is the patron of the charity, the largest 

on the island, and with an audience of 12,000 packing 

into the Malta Conference and Convention Centre 

(MFCC), this ranked as the largest-ever indoor event to 

date held on the island. 

The concert, under the music direction of Sigmund 

Mifsud, included orchestrated versions of rock classics 

by Queen, the Beach Boys, the Eagles, Led Zeppelin, 

Deep Purple and other bands, plus instrumental pieces 

performed by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra. Also 

appearing onstage were 


The installed screens from Daktronics can be disassembled and used by industry 

partner GoVision for mobile displays at off-season events. 

DALLAS — The huge video display hanging in the center of 

the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium isn’t the only video element 

fans have been encountering lately. The football team’s management 

also opted to install eight Daktronics portable modular 

LED displays on their new stadium’s outdoor plaza. 

“Our plazas provide almost eight acres of landscaped outdoor 

space for fans to gather before, during and after the game,” 

said Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. “The addition of the Daktronics 

video boards provides engaging entertainment for our fans, enhancing 

everyone’s game-day experience. This connects everyone 

to live action from our pre-game shows, the game itself and 

all the way through to our post-game interviews.” 

The portable displays, comprised of Daktronics PST-12HD 

video panels, bring fans live HD 


XL Video Aims Beyond the Status Quo with Video Visuals 

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA — Phil Mercer, 

the new managing director for XL 

Video’s West Coast operation, arrives from 

the project management team at XL Video 

UK, where the company’s share of market 

is more dominant, and foresees more experimentation 

with new projection technologies 

that go beyond basic projection 

setups on this side of the Atlantic. 

“I want to focus on what we do in Europe, 

where we’re number one,” Mercer 

said. “In Europe a lot of our work is bespoke 

and most of it is quite creative. We are well 

known for providing more than the usual 

rectangular screens. Generally, both with 

cameras and projectors, we get involved 

with the more adventurous projects.” 

Newer, lightweight screens and other 

gear from lesser-known manufacturers, he 

notes, are “finding themselves in places they 

would never have previously been seen.” 

The newer technologies are also changing 

the way the crew gets the work done. “You 

can rig a huge screen with very few people 

very, very quickly,” Mercer noted. 

Along with a willingness to go beyond 

the status quo with technology, Mercer cites 

XL Video’s ability to custom-make unique 

video production elements as a competitive 

edge. 


Phil Mercer, Managing Director, XL Video LA 



41

NEWS 


Video Projection Lights Up Rockestra Charity Event in Malta 

continued from page 41 

several local artists including The Riffs, 

Pawlu Borg Bonaci, Neville Refalo, Daniel 

Cauchi and Jotham Saliba of Scream Daisy. 

“It was a great honor to be asked back 

to Malta to work on this show,” said Ashton. 

“I mean, I couldn’t really say ‘no’ to the 

president! With so many musical genres 

and eras encompassed in the concert, it 

was also a really exciting and fun challenge 

to produce the two hours worth of 

projection artwork.” 

Outside Dallas Cowboys Stadium, Eight 

Temporary Video Displays 


broadcasts of each game from Sony HD 

production equipment. The displays 

also show crowd prompts, live scores, 

standings updates and a variety of other 

promotional content during pre-game, 

in-game and post-game activities. 

“The Cowboys have a tradition of 

providing one of the best game-day experiences 

in football,” said Myron Linde, 

Daktronics mobile and modular sales 

manager. “We are pleased to be working 

with the Cowboys, Sony and GoVision to 

help usher in an exciting new chapter in 

that tradition.” 

As a fully portable video solution, 

the displays give the Dallas Cowboys 

the flexibility to quickly disassemble 

E/T/C London also supplied all the 

equipment and crew to make the projections 

happen, which were beamed onto a 

20 by 16 meter upstage white screen behind 

the orchestra. 

Two front-projected Christie 18K machines 

were overlaid to ensure a bright image, with 

control via E/T/C’s OnlyView control system. All 

the video content was stored on the OnlyView 

Servers, and programmed in OnlyView and After 

Effects by Richard Porter and Karen Monid, 

with Monid running the show. 

the displays at the end of the season to 

partner with GoVision, a Texas-based audiovisual 

rental company, which will use 

the displays for a variety of off-season 

events. 

“When you combine the biggest 

name in football with the biggest rental 

and staging company in Texas, it’s always 

a win-win situation,” said Chris Curtis, 

president of GoVision. “The flexibility 

of these panels will allow us to showcase 

the Cowboys displays at PGA tournaments, 

music festivals and a variety of 

big events this offseason.” 

The new displays made their NFL 

debut at the Cowboy’s home opener on 

Sept. 20 against the New York Giants. 

The E/T/C team created the artwork 

under Ashton’s direction. Each song had 

its own individually-styled video content. 

The evening included plenty of 1970 retro 

moments to match the Led Zeppelin/Deep 

Purple/Eagles era music. The Deep Purple 

section featured an Egyptian theme with pyramid 

references. The crew created a Venetian 

dream sequence for “Bohemian Rhapsody” 

and a fantasy theatre look for Queen’s “Barcelona.” 

“Hotel California” was accompanied by a 

visual road trip across America. 


“On the current Depeche Mode tour 

there’s a half-sphere of Barco MiTrix that 

we engineered specifically for the tour, 

and all the content works with it,” Mercer 

said. “There are some very clever things 

that can be done when you’ve got really 

creative designers driving the content. 

“We have these LED discs that are eight 

feet in diameter out on Blink 182 at the moment,” 

Mercer added. “These have been used 

in Europe previously, but have never been 

seen over here. 

“We are really pushing creative shapes 

and solutions that are ready to go, using certain 

LED technologies and coming up with 

some creative ways of using them,” Mercer 

said. “We want to have things that designers, 

at short notice, can incorporate, and that are 

designed to break down, pack up and tour 

Apart from the sheer volume and diversity 

of content needing to be created 

for a two hour continuous show, Ashton 

said the other feature that made this project 

stand out was its flat surface. More 

used to projection onto building, objects, 

mountains and other miscellaneous surfaces 

and taking into account existing and 

intricate architecture and form, this time 

he had a completely blank, flat, white canvas 

on which to work. 

XL Video Aims Beyond the 

Status Quo with Video Visuals 

properly. I think that’s what we’re very good 

at and we’re putting resources into that.” 

As one of only a few companies in the 

video projection business with “premises, 

staff and equipment” on both sides of the 

Atlantic, XL Video hopes to expand its appeal 

to clients who want “to deal with one 

company globally,” and “because of the way 

the dollar has been against European currencies, 

it’s very attractive for Americanmanaged 

artists to do that kind of a deal,” 

Mercer added. 

XL Video’s activities in the U.S. have 

included support for the 1996 Summer 

Olympics in Atlanta, Ga. and this year’s 

concert touring acts include Jay-Z, U2, 

Depeche Mode, Coldplay, Kings of Leon, 

Pink, Blink 182, Il Divo and the Ting 

Tings. 

Bangkok International 

Motor Show Gets LED 

Visual Support 

BANGKOK — Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi and 

Suzuki relied upon video visuals to attract attention 

to their stands and products at the 12-day 

Bangkok International Motor Show. Working 

with the show’s contractor, PM Center Co., Ltd., 

JM Rental Ltd. provided a total five screens, all 

made with Lighthouse LED panels. 

The Honda motorcycles, Mitsubishi and 

Suzuki stands all featured R4-S 4mm pixel pitch 

screens configured in eight-by-eight, five-by-five 

and six-by-six panel configurations, respectively 

(for LED screen sizes of 5.12 meters by 3.84 meters, 

3.2 meters by 2.4 meters and 3.84 meters by 

2.88 meters). 

The stands for Honda cars and Nissan made 

use of R6-S 6mm pixel pitch screens, sized in sixby-six 

and 10-by-five panel configurations (for 

LED screen sizes of 3.84 meters by 2.88 meters 

and 6.4 meters by 2.4 meters). 

The event drew 130 exhibitors from 111 

countries and 1.6 million attendees. 


The Honda motorcycle stand featured Lighthouse 

R4-S panels provided by JM Rental Ltd. 



VIDEO WORLD 


By PaulBerliner 

There’s a very hot trend in the world 

of digital cinema these days, and that 

“something” is 3D. Technically, it’s the 

process of simulating three-dimensional 

stereoscopic images on a two-dimensional 

surface. But artistically, it’s the latest and 

greatest ticket in movie entertainment. 

Animated or live-action films made with 3D 

technology are drawing big crowds, and the 

films are enjoying longer runs in theatres. 

The number of 3D releases is skyrocketing, 

and for good reason — 30 percent of the 

movie screens are suddenly generating 70 

percent of the revenue — and the big studios 

are sitting up and taking notice. 

In the next few moments, I’d like to provide 

a little background on 2D (two-dimensional) 

digital cinema and then dive deeper 

into 3D. Specifically, how the technology 

grew up, how it works, where it’s going — 

and how it might impact our rental and 

staging business. 

A Refresher Course in Digital Cinema VW 

At the theatre level, digital cinema is 

the next wave in projection technology, 

and little by little, theatres across the nation 

are changing from film to digital. You 

still have big mongo screens, big lenses and 

popcorn in the lobby — but the movie content 

is played back from a server, rather than 

from a film reel. Gone are the sprockets, film 

gates, scratches on the print and the projectionist 

sleeping through the reel change 

cue. The colorimetry is gorgeous, and at the 

hundredth screening, the “print” looks identical 

to its first screening. (It ain’t a print, of 

course — it’s a huge multi-gigabyte motion 

JPEG file.) Films can be produced in the traditional 

manner or produced using an entire 

digital workflow, but the release version is 

delivered to the theatre on a hard drive or 

via satellite — not in a giant film canister. 

All of this is made possible by the wizards 

at Texas Instruments (TI), based on their 

remarkable DLP® (Digital Light Processing) 

technology. (Visit www.dlp.com for the 

scoop). The DLP chips are the optical semiconductors 

with millions of on-board micromirrors 

that actually tilt towards (or away 

from) the projector’s light source. They’re 

used in everything from conference room 

projectors to large-scale events projectors. 

But for digital cinema, the difference is projector 

brightness, amazingly high security 

for the projector and the server and the native 

resolution of TI’s DLP Cinema® chip — 

2048 by 1080 pixels. If you’ve heard about 

“2K” digital cinema projectors, the derivation 

is the quantity “2048” itself — the number 

of horizontal pixels in the image. A “4K” 

projector is yet another beast and perhaps, 

the topic of a future column. 

The Big Three 

VW 

TI has licensed only three projector 

manufacturers to use the DLP Cinema chip: 

Barco, Christie and NEC. To guarantee quality 

and uniformity, each manufacturer’s projector 

has to adhere to a very strict set of 

specs set forth by Digital Cinema Initiatives, 

LLC (DCI), a joint venture created in 2002 by 

the major studios. DCI compliance is like the 

Good Housekeeping seal for digital cinema 

projectors and in particular, the specs set 

Anaglyph glasses used in the 1950s 

created the illusion of depth. Digital 

technologies use polarization, a colorwheel 

method, and “passive” or “active” 

lenses instead. 

high levels of security and encryption that 

keep the movies secure and protect the 

studios’ intellectual property. If you’d like a 

little light reading this weekend, visit www. 

dcimovies.com and enjoy the tech talk. 

Based around the big three, an entire 

host of cottage industries have sprung up, 

creating the peripheral equipment that’s 

necessary for the digital cinema workflow. 

There are companies making digital cinema 

servers, image processing gear that allows 

exhibitors to re-purpose their digital projectors 

for additional revenue, workflow asset 

management programs and even the gadgets 

that make 3D possible. 

Into the Wayback Machine, Sherman 

VW 

Up until a few years ago, digital projection 

was strictly 2D. But the propellerheads 

in the back rooms of the big three’s engineering 

labs kept on scheming — hearkening 

back to the industry’s early experiments 

with 3D. Perhaps, they thought, digital projection 

might be the key to the revival of 

3D! 

Depending on which site you visit, there 

are a few conflicting stories about the origin 

of 3D, but one of the best sources is Wikipedia 

(www.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-D_film). It 

has a very scholarly article on the history of 

3D and the various production techniques. 

In a nutshell, way back in the late 1890s, a 

British filmmaker filed a patent for a dualprojector 

3D process — one projector for 

the left eye’s image and one for the right. 

Lots of tinkering occurred over the next 20 

years with little success, until September, 

1922. That’s when the first confirmed 3D film 

(The Power of Love) was shown to a paying 

audience in Los Angeles. Reviews were underwhelming 

at best, and the film has apparently 

been lost forever. 

Fast-forward through the 1930s and 

1940s, during which time Polariod filters 

were first used to produce separate images 

for the left and right eyes in order to simulate 

3D. Yet the genre still remained a novelty. 

During the 1950s, the so-called “golden 

era” of 3D, movie studios jumped into the 

game with a passion. New techniques were 

tested and many successful 3D films were 

released, from comedy to sci-fi to drama, including 

perhaps the campiest film of the entire 

genre, Creature from the Black Lagoon. 

Superimposed Colors 

VW 

The 1950s was also the era of those ubiquitous 

anaglyph glasses — the ones with 

red and cyan lenses. The films were created 

using two superimposed contrasting colored 

filters (one for each eye), and the colors 

were offset laterally to create depth. When 

the film is projected, the anaglyph glasses 

separate the left and right images by canceling 

out the filter colors, and your brain does 

the rest by putting the stereoscopic illusion 

together. The technique is still in use today 

on a very small scale, because new technologies 

have taken over the task. 

From the 1960s through the 1990s, 3D 

films faltered, revived and faltered again, not 

necessarily because of the content, but primarily 

because of the difficulty in synchronizing 

two mechanical projectors. Way back 

then, there was no SMPTE time code or DMX 

protocol to assist with synchronization. 

That Darn Chicken 

VW 

Enter digital cinema, and one of the 

major hurdles fell away. Dual projector synchronization 

was suddenly moot, because 

based on server playback, you simply feed 

two digital projectors from one source, and 

there’s nothing mechanical to get in the 

way. But the larger task remained — how to 

make a 2D digital cinema projector play 3D 

films, and what new technologies could be 

employed? Do you still need two projectors, 

or could it be done with one? More importantly 

(for the studios), how can we make 

some big bucks with this? 

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, legions 

of propellerheads continued to hack away 

at the challenge, and suddenly, several new 

projection technologies and projector “addins” 

emerged, some based on polarization 

and others based on a color-wheel method 

(and may the anaglyph scheme RIP). And 

because the need for separate left and right 

images did not go away, a new industry was 

born for 3D glasses, some with “passive” polarized 

lenses and others with “active” lenses 

that are actually synchronized to the projector. 

Then, circa 2004 and 2005, armed with 

new tech, the 3D industry got a major kick 

start with 3D Imax films such as The Polar 

Express and big-budget digital cinema productions 

such as the blockbuster, Chicken 

Little. These wonderful animated films, perhaps 

more than any other factors, proved 

that both the technical and financial models 

were sound, and that money could be made 

with 3D. Since that milestone, the list of 3D 

releases (both animated and live action) has 

grown exponentially, and the technology 

has improved dramatically. Sure enough, 

there’s U2 and Miley Cyrus in beautiful 3D. 

Clearly, the medium is not without its drawbacks, 

but the technology in the projection 

booth is transparent to the average viewer 

in the theatre. 

Stay Tuned, and Meanwhile … 

VW 

In part 2 of this column, I’m going to get 

seriously hi-tech. I’ll explain the five current 

third-party methods that turn a 2D digital 

cinema projector into a 3D digital cinema 

projector and explain why light output is 

still king. In partnership with the big three 

manufacturers, these cutting-edge thirdparty 

companies have designed some remarkable 

peripherals, all of which are driving 

the industry’s increased revenues (even 

in our down market). In the meantime, get 

out there and see a 3D film — it’s an experience 

not to be missed. 

Paul Berliner is president of Berliner Productions 

in Davis, Calif. He can be reached at 

pberliner@plsn.com. 



Below are the nominees for the 9th Annual Parnelli Awards. Cast your vote to honor those individuals 

and companies who have done outstanding work in the past year. Voting for the Parnelli 

Awards is limited to subscribers of Projection, Lights & Staging News and FRONT of HOUSE. To cast 

your vote, go to www.parnelliawards.com/vote 

Lighting Company 

Bandit Lites — Blink 182 

Epic Production 

Technologies — Trans-Siberian Orchestra 

Premier Global Production — Metallica 

PRG — U2 

Upstaging, Inc. — Coldplay 

Hometown Hero 

Lighting Company 

Atlanta Sound & Lighting — Southeast 

Eggshell Lighting Company — Southwest 

Hollywood Lighting Services — Northwest 

Midnite Hour Productions — Canada 

Starlite Productions — Northeast 

Theatrical Media Services — Midwest 

Lighting Designer 

Marc Brickman — Keith Urban 

Seth Jackson & Sarah Landau — Jason Mraz 

Paul Normandale — Coldplay 

Jason Robinson — World Wrestling 

Entertainment 

Fenton Williams — Dave Matthews Band 

Willie Williams — U2 

Set/Scenic Designer 

Stefan Beese — Essence Music Festival 

Justin Collie — Beyonce 

Mark Fisher — U2 

Bruce Rodgers — Rascal Flatts 

Jason Robinson — World Wrestling 

Entertainment 

Video Director 

James Duer — Toby Keith 

Mark Haney — Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood 

Michael Lane — Dave Matthews Band 

Bailey Pryor — Brad Paisley 

Stefaan “Smasher” Desmedt — U2 

sound company 

ATK Audiotek — NFL Superbowl Concert 

Audio Analysts — Bruce Springsteen 

Clair — U2 

Pro Media / Ultrasound — Dave 

Matthews Band 

Sound Image — Brad Paisley 

Thunder Audio — Metallica 

hometown hero 

sound company 

Allstar Audio Systems — Southeast 

Concert Quality Sound — Northeast 

Morgan Sound — Northwest 

Onstage Systems — Southwest 

Signature Audio — Midwest 

Tour Tech East — Canada 

foh mixer 

Robert Collins — Eric Clapton/ 

Steve Winwood 

Russell Fischer — Taylor Swift 

Big Mick Hughes — Metallica 

Gordon Mack — John Legend 

Jeff Thomas — Dave Matthews Band 

Monitor Mixer 

Monty Carlo — Bruce Springsteen 

Antonio Luna — Aerosmith 

Earl Neal — Toby Keith 

Paul Owen — Metallica 

Jon Schimke — No Doubt 

system tech 

Ted Bible — Def Leppard 

Jonathan Day — Metallica 

Scott Hale — Toby Keith 

Tom Lyon — Dave Matthews Band 

Louis-Philippe Maziade — Britney Spears 

Production Manager 

Kendall Carter — Rascal Flatts 

Greg Dean — Green Day 

Kevin Freeman — Brad Paisley 

Harold Jones — Beyonce 

Bobby Thrasher — Billy Joel/Elton John 

Tour Manager 

Dick Adams — Metallica 

Robert Allen — Taylor Swift 

Andy Franks — Coldplay 

Bill Greer — Dave Matthews Band 

Peter Jackson — Eric Clapton/ 

Steve Winwood 

Staging Company 

Brown United — Billy Joel/Elton John 

Kleege Industries — Bob Dylan & Friends 

Mountain Productions — Toby Keith 

Stageco — AC/DC 

Rigging Company 

Atlanta Rigging Systems — Toby Keith 

Five Points Rigging — U2 

Reed Rigging — Dave Matthews Band 

SGPS/ShowRig — Trans-Siberian Orchestra 

Set Construction Company 

Accurate Staging — Taylor Swift 

All Access Staging & 

Productions — Dave Matthews Band 

B and R Scenery — NFL Superbowl 

PRG/Scenic Technologies — Britney Spears 

Tait Towers — U2 

Video Rental Company 

Chaos Visual Productions — Keith Urban 

MooTV — Brad Paisley 

Nocturne Productions — Nickelback 

Screenworks — Billy Joel/Elton John 

XL Video — U2 

Pyro Company 

Advanced Entertainment 

Services — Rockettes 

Pyrotek Special Effects — Green Day 

Strictly FX — Mötley Crüe 

Zenith Pyrotechnology — World Wrestling 

Entertainment 

Coach Company 

Celebrity Coaches 

Coach Quarters 

Four Seasons Coach Leasing 

Hemphill Brothers Coach Company 

Senators Coaches 

Freight Forwarding 

Acme Global Logistics 

EFM Event Logistics 

Music Freight 

Rock-It Cargo 

Sound Moves 

Trucking Company 

Egotrips 

Roadshow Services 

Stage Call 

Upstaging, Inc. 

audio 

Adamson: T-21 Subs 

AKG: DMS 700 Digital 

Wireless System 

DiGiCo: SD7 

Digidesign: VENUE System 

Kaltman Creations: Invisible 

Waves 

Lab.gruppen: PLM Series 

lighting 

Clay Paky: Alpha Beam 

Coemar: Infinity Spot XL 

Martin: MAC III 

PRG: Bad Boy 

Vari-Lite: VL 3500 Wash 

staging 

Brown United: Post Technology 

(Towers) 

CM Entertainment 

Technology: Prostar Chain Hoist 

Stageline: SL 100 – Mobile Stage 

Mix Position 

Tomcat Global: Edge Truss 

Tyler Truss Systems: Tyler GT 

video 

Barco/High End Systems: ShowPix 

Martin: LC Plus 

Main Light Industries: MF3 

Philips Color Kinetics: iColor 

Flex LED Strands 

Zap Technology: RGBig LED 

gold SPONSORS

Jake Berry 

Parnelli Lifetime 

Achievement Acheivment Award 

Richard Belliveau 

Sponsored by: 

Sponsored by: 

Parnelli 

Visionary Award 

New This Year 

The Indispensable 

Technology Awards 

SILVER SPONSORS 

production SPONSORS 

AERIAL 

RIGGING

FEEDING THE MACHINES 


By BradSchiller 

I 

find automated lighting programming 

is always lots of fun as I am a self-admitted 

“lighting geek.” However, all 

programmers find there are times when 

it can be tough to get our juices flowing 

when working on a show. Whether it is 

programming yet another song (they all 

sound the same after a while), working 

with the same rig over and over, or just 

doing too many gigs back to back, we 

all find ourselves stuck in a rut at some 

point in our careers. Of course, these 

episodes usually pass quickly, but it can 

be interesting to examine how they occur 

and what to do about them. 

Working with the Same Rig 

FTM 

If you have ever worked in a permanent 

venue, then you have probably 

found yourself stuck trying to come up 

with new looks using the same fixtures 

on the same stage. Sometimes it is totally 

acceptable to use the same ballyhoos, 

stage looks and chases for yet another 

production. Who is going to know that 

you used the same audience bally with 

last night’s client as you did today? Nevertheless, 

it is very important that you 

make a conscious effort every once in a 

while to program some new looks. Yes, 

you still need a standard audience ballyhoo, 

but why not build it differently 

on the next event? Challenge yourself 

to not use the effects from your console 

and instead only use chases or loops. 

Throw out your usual color palettes/ 

presets and create new ones based on 

how you feel today and the show you are 

working on. I bet you will create at least 

one new color that you adapt into your 

standard set of colors. 

By pushing yourself to be creative 

and doing something differently, you 

will expand your horizons and find more 

If you have ever worked in a permanent 

venue, then you have probably found 

yourself stuck trying to come up with 

new looks. 

enjoyment with every keystroke. In addition, 

the show will look much better 

due to the new, fresh programming. Of 

course, if you have been working on the 

crew all day and have only an hour before 

doors to program, then please do 

rely on your old standards. In all other 

situations, it is important to balance the 

old with the new to keep you from getting 

stuck. 

A New Perspective 

FTM 

A few years ago, Chris Stuba contacted 

me to help him with an upcoming ZZ 

Top tour. He has been the band’s LD for 

many years and he wanted to try a new 

idea. He hired me and Troy Eckerman to 

program the show as we saw fit. Chris 

gave us his normal cue lists and requested 

that we keep the cueing intact but to 

insert our own creative interpretations of 

the lighting and video. So Troy and I sat 

down with a visualizer and a media server 

and programmed for a few days. At 

rehearsals we showed Chris what we had 

come up with. Since the cueing was the 

same as he was used to, he could immediately 

run the songs with no problems. 

Chris did make some modifications to 

our initial looks, but for the most part he 

used what we provided. This technique 

worked well, giving the show a new 

look and providing Chris some creative 

ideas about where to go from there. In 

subsequent tours our influence was still 

apparent, even though Chris did all the 

programming himself. 

Not Another Song! 

FTM 

Whether you’re programming a tour 

or a theatrical show, at some point you 

will find it difficult to help the LD to determine 

what to do next. Maybe you 

By pushing yourself to be creative and doing 

something differently you will expand 

your horizons and find more enjoyment 

with every keystroke. 

have already done your share of slow 

audience ballys and do not want to do 

that again. Or maybe there is another 

drum solo and you are lost about how to 

make this one stand out. Musicians tend 

to be very repetitious in their work, and 

I have always wondered why LDs always 

want something new. I have learned 

that a good method to get unstuck when 

working on an all-too-familiar section of 

a show is to take a break. Relax for a few 

minutes and take the pressure off. Then 

think how you can approach this song 

differently. Is there a gobo that you have 

not used, or a new focus that could be 

created? How about being daring and 

turning off most the fixtures and going 

with the “less is more” principle? Of 

course, each situation will be different, 

and you should always consult the LD, 

but with a little break you can usually 

start back with a fresh idea. 

Learning the Rig 

FTM 

I received an email recently from 

Mark Jenkins asking about how to learn 

the “personality” of a lighting rig. He 

says that after setting up the system all 

day, he is pretty burnt when he sits down 

at the console. This makes it difficult to 

get started with his programming. Furthermore, 

he finds that after programming 

for a little while he figures out what 

works best with the particular rig. From 

there his looks tend to get better as he 

has a better grasp of the capabilities. 

Whenever I can, I take the time to just 

play for a bit with the lighting rig before 

I start programming. I usually do this 

as I am building my “standard” position 

palettes/presets. I will put in my headphones 

and listen to music. Then I program 

to what I am listening to and create 

some looks, effects, chases, etc., and get 

to know the rig. Usually these looks are 

thrown away and never used in the show, 

but sometimes elements of my playtime 

will make it into the production. 

I find it extremely valuable to take 

the time to familiarize myself with the 

layout of fixtures and staging. This is 

similar to a racecar driver taking a few 

laps in his car to become familiar with 

the track. By forcing myself to be creative 

“on my own dime,” I am able to 

see what is possible without having 

to worry about the specific confines 

of the show. This is the key factor 

in this technique: spend some time 

programming the lights simply to 

acquaint yourself with the rig with 

no pressure to use the programming 

later. Just be sure that you leave 

yourself enough time to program the 

show and that you are not “playing” 

for hours on end. 


Climb Out of the Rut 

FTM 

It can be difficult to determine 

how to get yourself out of a creative 

rut, however there are many great 

techniques for jump starting your 

creativity. When you feel that you are 

stuck and unsure of what to do, take a 

breather and try to think in a different 

direction. Alternatively, you might 

seek out guidance from others, or just 

play to see what is sparked. Ultimately, 

you have to break free from the rut 

and get the show programmed, so it 

is important to be prepared for these 

situations. Try to look at them as 

learning experiences and you will find 

yourself unstuck in no time. 

Get unstuck by emailing Brad Schiller 

at: brads@plsn.com 


Jake Berry 


Dinosaurs Big and Small 

plsn 

When he’s not touring with U2 he keeps 

busy with other projects, including familyoriented 

tours with Disney, Barney, Bob the 

Builder and the Wiggles. His biggest familyshow 

act has been the touring mega-hit Walking 

with Dinosaurs, where he was a key player 

in figuring out how to transport more than a 

dozen life-size dinosaurs around the world. Of 

that show, he quipped: “There were less egos 

but more luggage.” 

Berry’s skill set doesn’t include the technical 

aspects (“I’m the least technically minded 

tour manager you’ll ever meet!”), but he 

attributes his success to a hardy work ethic, 

an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and 


the ability to communicate. 

And none of it has gone to his head. “People 

say you don’t have to push cases, but you know 

why I do it? I enjoy it.” It’s that attitude that has led 

him into a number of hobbies, including managing 

race-car drivers. 

Berry says he’s honored to receive the Parnelli 

Lifetime Achievement Award. “When something 

like this goes to you, it’s humbling,” he says. 

“At the end of the day, when you work in a field 

for 35 years and you get something like this, it’s 

like winning the Super Bowl. I’m thankful to have 

received it.” 

Berry has lived in Phoenix for the past 16 

years, and today he shares his home with his girlfriend, 

Megan. He also keeps as close as he can to 

his two daughters, Jessica and Britain. 

“It has been said that Jake considers the performance 

an inconvenience between load-in 

and load-out,” Tait says. “Nothing could be further 

from the truth. He has a passion for the show. His 

input often involves advising the artist on structure, 

pace and content. He does everything possible 

to enhance the audience experience. However, 

be warned, if you are ever involved with 

one of his load-outs you have to be very fast or 

you will have to get out of the way.” 

Lighting designer Willie Williams, who has 

worked with Berry on U2 tours, says: “He’s unafraid 

of a challenge, responsibility, Very Big 

Things, or very large numbers of trucks. He’s 

unafraid of a tight schedule, management, 

promoters, agents, or Live Nation. He’s unafraid 

of rock stars, lighting designers, set designers, 

video directors, or sound engineers. He’s unafraid 

of dinosaurs, be they large and life-like or 

purple and fluffy. Can he build it? Yes he can!” 

And when asked to reflect on it all, Berry 

FEATURE 

says: “You look back at your youth, you remember 

when your mother asked when you’re going 

to get a real job, your teacher yelling that you’re 

not going to make anything of your life...and 

here I am. I’ve been paid to travel the world.” 

Berry will receive his Parnelli Lifetime 

Achievement Award at a gala ceremony on November 

20 in Orlando. For more information on 

the Parnellis, go to www.parnelliawards.com. 

Big Wheels 

Keep on 

Turning 


highlight is that things are ‘status quo,’ business 

hasn’t fallen off.” 

Stage Call clients Britney Spears, Keith 

Urban and Rascal Flatts continue to keep 

the company’s engines humming. Taylor 

Swift jumped from supporting act to headliner 

this year, which also contributed to a 

busy summer. “She’s got this great attitude 

about her,” he says. Swift represents a shift 

in the business for him: “Country is the new 

pop. There is no pop music any more — it’s 

almost all country.” 

Everyone is watching the nickels and 

dimes, from the top artists down. One bit 

of “luck” happened right before the downturn. 

A few employees decided to leave on 

their own, and, “wisely, as if we had a magic 

eight ball, we didn’t fill those positions.” In 

addition to that, he acknowledges there’s 

been a layoff or two. But they are in good 

shape. 

“The companies who win are those who 

watch their costs and keep things under 

control year after year. We have a history 

of that. Trucking is not a high-margin business.” 

Fuel surcharges are a reality of the market 

place. For Stage Call, if gas suddenly 

drops during a tour, it’s likely that tour will 

get a rebate; if it suddenly spikes, additional 

cost is added on. 

While Stage Call reports that their main 

clients have stuck with them, a few come 

and go. Sometimes it’s as simple as an artist 

switching production managers and the 

production manager having a preference. 

There’s an ebb and flow. “But we do have a 

full plate right now.” 

When asked about the recession, Haas 

pauses, then says: “Was it not during the 

Depression when all the great theaters 

were built? People tend to want to have a 

good time when the economy is in a tough 

spot. 

“What’s helping us is that artists get 

no support from recording companies any 

more, and CD sales are down. This means 

they have to go out on tour more often. 

When I worked for Vari-Lite I could get all 

my leads from Billboard magazine. When an 

album came out, there was a system: record, 

tour; record, tour. It’s not like that today.” 

In addition to those already mentioned, 

Stage Call also supports Chicago, Jay-Z, Rise 

Against the Machine and the WWE. 


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Employment 




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NOW HIRING: 

Electronic Technicians (Lighting and Sound) 

OmniSistem seeks Lighting and Sound Technicians. Requirements: Knowledge and passion in electronics, sound equipment and lighting; Ability to lift up 

anywhere from 25 pounds (frequently) to 100 pounds (with partner, occasionally); Ability to travel; Knowledge in MS Office (Excel, Word). 

Inside Sales/Customer Service - Lighting Manufacturing 

City Theatrical, Inc. is seeking an individual for an Inside Sales/Customer Service Representative to join our sales team. The successful candidate will be 

a lively, determined, intelligent person with a theatrical lighting background, a good eye for detail and a strong ethical sense who likes working with 

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ADVERTISER’S INDEX 

COMPANY PG# PH URL 

COMPANY PG# PH URL 

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Robe Lighting s.r.o. 3 954.615.9100 http://plsn.hotims.com/23525-141 

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Bulbtronics 18 800.227.2852 http://plsn.hotims.com/23525-110 

Sound Moves 40 724.935.4053 http://plsn.hotims.com/23525-422 

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CM Rigging 48 800.888.0985 http://plsn.hotims.com/23525-116 

Strong Entertainment 23 800.262.5016 http://plsn.hotims.com/23525-142 

Creative Stage Lighting Co., Inc. 20 518.251.3302 http://plsn.hotims.com/23525-118 

Techni-Lux C2 407.857.8770 http://plsn.hotims.com/23525-147 

Daktronics 35 800.843.5843 http://plsn.hotims.com/23525-217 

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Printed circulation stated on USPS Form 3526-R does not include subscribers receiving the digital edition of the magazine.

LD-AT-LARGE 


Being a Guest LD 


Anyone who has ever looked after 

lighting a musical artist will eventually 

find themselves having 

to work in strange surroundings, with 

a light rig and set they did not design. 

Whether it’s a TV show, an awards presentation 

or a radio station-hosted arena 

bash, there is an unwritten etiquette that 

would be wise to follow. 

Of course, there are different rules for 

each of these types of shows, and it would 

be proper to address them separately. 

First I’m going to start with television 

talk shows. Each night, these shows have 

a musical guest. And of course the musical 

guest will bring his personal lighting 

director along because they need to feel 

confident that it will run perfectly. But 

to be honest, there is rarely a reason for 

any act to bring their guy to the venue. 

When I’m there, it’s to offer some color 

suggestions and to insure one particular 

blackout cue happens on time. 

Lighting for the Camera plsn 

These shows have permanent lighting 

directors who excel in television 

lighting. The normal band LD does not. 

What the human eye sees is not what the 

camera sees, so a scene you may think 

looks great might look like ass to millions 

of viewers. And you know your artist 

is going to watch himself that night. 

If he looks bad, your job could well be in 

jeopardy. 

Hint #1: Let the folks at the TV studio 

do their job. Feel free to offer hints 

such as “In this song, the artist likes to be 

amber,” or “Please hit the strobes on this 

breakdown.” The programmers often 

appreciate those kinds of comments because 

they usually don’t know the music. 

Let them run the console. 

Hint # 2: Don’t touch the spotlights. 

Every show has either key lights or spotlights 

trained on one specific person on 

stage. The house director has balanced 

and color corrected them to perfection 

COMING NEXT 

MONTH… 

Special Double Issue 

At-show LDI issue 

featuring twice the 

content and more 

information for industry 

professionals. 

Things That Go 

Boom… 

Special effects and how 

they make shows snap, 

crackle, and pop. 

Hazed and Confused? 

Next month’s Buyer’s 

Guide clears the air on 

haze generators. 

If you are lucky, there will be a good programmer 

already there at the festival who 

has a buttload of looks pre-programmed 

in the console. 

for the camera. Again, you may think 

that your artist is going to hate this light 

in his eyes (he will), but he will hate you 

more if he appears too dark on the stage 

when his mug shows up on that flat 

screen around 11 p.m. 

Of course, there are occasional exceptions. 

Ten years ago I was lighting 

Kid Rock when he performed on some 

televised awards show. He had a hit song 

called “Devil” that started with a monologue. 

I sat with LD Alan Branton and 

had to insist that he put a red gel in the 

spotlight for the opening monologue 

of this number. It was important to the 

artist that he looks evil. Alan whined, 

but finally got over it once I assured him 

that the red would go away after the first 

20-second intro. 

A Corporate CYA Strategy 

plsn 

As musical acts age, they no longer 

have hit records, and they become novelty 

acts, performing at corporate parties. 

The upside is that these bands can demand 

more money than they did when 

they packed arenas. The downside is that 

they have to play in front of a bunch of 

drunks dancing with their wives on a parquet 

floor. But it’s all about the money. 

Face it, these bands are happy that anybody 

still wants to pay them and dance 

to their tunes. 

At half of these shows, the acts will 

demand that the client rent their specified 

lighting package. Then it’s an easy 

day for the LD. But at a lot of these corporate 

events, the band LD will have to 

make do with whatever gear is provided. 

At these times, I find it wise to set up 

about 30 faders with various punt cues. 

One fader may bally the lights, one may 

chase intensities, and so on. 

Hint #3: The important thing is that 

you adopt a CYA strategy, lighting-wise, 

for the few essential cues that each artist 

demands in their performance, like 

blackouts and strobes at specific times. 

All the rest will be fine. 

Punting at Festival Shows 

plsn 

Festival shows (often put on by local 

radio stations) are a big part of a lot of 

new acts’ itineraries. This gives a young 

band a chance to perform (albeit for little 

money) in front of a large crowd. This 

Hint #5: Trust your local programmer; 

chances are he’s good. 

is a good way to build a following. 

Organizers of these festivals will often 

hire me to design a lighting rig that 

each band’s LD can use. If you are lucky, 

there will be a good programmer already 

there who has a buttload of looks preprogrammed 

in the console. Otherwise, 

I build my Ultimate Punt Page in an hour 

and I am set to go. 

Hint #4: It’s my personal belief that 

the stupidest thing any band LD can do 

is come in on the day of show and try and 

recreate their entire show, cue by cue. It 

takes forever, keeps other LDs from getting 

time to familiarize themselves with 

the light rig and makes you unpopular 

with the local lighting vendor. It really 

tends to look better when you just punt. 

What NOT to Do 

plsn 

A few years ago, I had a big-name 

act coming to play one of my radio festivals. 

The LD is a great guy and his touring 

show looks fantastic. As a favor, he 

asked me to bring him down a portable 

WYSIWYG visualizer system so he could 

clone his entire 45 minute set from his 

show disk to the lights I had on the rig 

that day. I was not going to argue; heck, 

he’s my friend. 

So for eight hours, this guy sat alone 

backstage behind his grandMA, typing 

away. The other LDs and I ran all the other 

bands off the punt page and the show 

looked great. When it came time for the 

big name artist, we loaded in his show 

disk and prepared for the best. 

Unfortunately, the whole plan backfired. 

The focus positions for the moving 

lights were not precise and the colors 

didn’t match. But the worst part of it all 

was that the stage was extremely dark. 

He had lights sweeping around the arena, 

strobes going off at the right time, 

but he overlooked the one basic rule of 

concert illumination. No matter what, 

you always have to “light the money.” All 

the cool cues in the world will be worthless 

if you cannot see the artist on stage. 

A Handwritten Sheet 

plsn 

Hint #5: Trust your local programmer; 

chances are he’s good. I can program almost 

any console faster than most. But 

as soon as I get to a gig I didn’t design, I 

look for the programmer and we have a 

few words. If I am confident in his ability, 

I simply hand him a handwritten sheet 

with the lighting cues I need and where 

on the console to place them. 

Today, I find myself on the set of the 

Jimmy Kimmel show. I know the talented 

house LD is working the room. Pete Radice 

is behind the Virtuoso console here. I 

am clueless on this beast, but I have faith 

in Pete. I have given him a list of cues to 

be placed in front of me, and I have full 

confidence in his programming ability. 

While he works, I spend the afternoon 

reminiscing with Christian Hibbard 

and Kylie. The stage is outside and the 

sunlight is blinding, yet I have no fear. 

Pete does this for a living and deals with 

guest LDs every day. I have no doubt that 

tonight’s show will be the best one ever. 

Nook is a freelance lighting designer and 

he can be reached at nook@plsn.com.

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